Shinsaku Yanai

Shinsaku Yanai (柳内伸作, Yanai Shinsaku, born 1947, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese writer who formerly held the rank of major in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. He is a graduate of Tokyo Keizai University (東京経済大学) and the Ground Self-Defense Force Research School (陸上自衛隊調査学校), where he took courses in psychological warfare.[1][2] In 1992, while still employed by the SDF as an instructor of military history, he published an article in Japanese magazine Shūkan Bunshun in which he suggested that a coup was necessary to clean up corruption in the Japanese political establishment.[3] The incident was described as "an extreme source of embarrassment" for the SDF; the public were more amused than outraged by the article, and even some of Yanai's colleagues anonymously referred to him as a "crackpot".[4] In response, the SDF dismissed Yanai from his post. He was the first officer in any branch of the Self Defense Forces to be dismissed in response to his authorship of a newspaper article.[5]