This book is representative of a growing scholarly interest in the nature and features of the alliance between former Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan. Often understood as an alliance defined by merely pragmatic contingencies, the new literature points to many cultural, economic, ideological and social exchanges developing along different dimensions. In line with this trend, Reto Hofmann has written a fascinating history of the making of fascist ideology focusing on the exchanges between Japan and Italy in the interwar period. Fascism, the author argues, far from being a defined ideological structure resulted from a dialogue between local and global ideas and was discussed continuously, defined, negotiated, and explained. Looking at this process is thus extremely important to reconstruct under-explored historical debates and the series of contradictions inherent to ideas and meanings of fascism.

The book includes a short introduction, five chapters, and an epilogue. The first chapter focuses on Shimoi Harukichi, a connoisseur of Italian culture, an admirer of fascism and Mussolini, and his propagandistic efforts to raise Italian fascism's popularity in Japan. As the author convincingly argues, looking at Shimoi Harukichi's endeavour suggests that he did not want to construct a replica of Italian fascism in Japan but rather “to mediate the story of Italian Fascism to an audience of young Japanese to stir them into seeking a patriotic politics of their own” (8–9). The second chapter discusses the emergence of a “Mussolini boom” in the late 1920s in Japan, a time marked by widespread disillusionment with liberal politics, and how debates about Italy's dictator spurred more general discussions about “political and cultural leadership” (38–39). The third chapter, titled “The Clash of Fascimsch”, deals with shifting meanings of fascism from a discourse closely associated to Italy to a global trend and with “the struggle for the control over the many meanings the term had assumed” (64). The fourth chapter discusses how Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in the mid-1930s provided common ground for a convergence of the two countries’ imperial interests and fostered further discussions over Japan's imperial role in Asia. The fifth chapter considers the period leading to the signing of the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy and how this spurred debate about “the historical nature” of Japan's allies and about “their place in world history” (109–111).

The book is beautifully-crafted and well-written, concise and to the point. Although based on a defined chronological order which touches upon roughly four decades, each chapter develops a clear thematic discussion, which readers can read separately. The author aptly combines a varied array of primary sources and engages with different forms of history writing spanning from the biographical approach adopted in the first chapter to a more openly transnational perspective developed in the last chapter. The result is a very engaging and conceptually stimulating narrative. For example, the author's insight into Japan's different and shifting reactions to Italy's 1935 invasion of Ethiopia is particularly fascinating. The event, the author argues, generated numerous protests in Japan as many saw Italy's aggression as a further reminder of European imperialism and racism. Anti-imperial protests also came from right-wing activists that used Pan-Asianist rhetoric to promote Japan's domination in Asia. At the same time, others began to look more favourably at Italy's imperial policies as these questioned the international economic and political system of the interwar period.

Although this book focuses on relations and exchanges between fascisms in Japan and Italy, the author's attention concentrates mainly on the former national context. This imbalance reflects the author's choice “to rethink the history of Japan as part of a wider, interconnected, history of fascism” and to analyse its “enmeshed” dialogue with European fascism (2). Still, one would have expected a more systematic use of Italian sources to do justice to the copious number of Italy's archival collections listed in the bibliography and which appear only sporadically throughout the text. Or, considering the book's focus on “public discourse”, a broader consultation of Italian newspapers, beyond references to Mussolini's Il Popolo d'Italia, would have certainly provided more insights on the development of a dialogue between the two countries. A “media event” such as the Italo-Ethiopian War is, again, a case in point. Although the author discusses the extent to which Italy's invasion spurred widespread “anti-Italian sentiment” in Japan, Italian reactions to this trend are confined to a few considerations of military and diplomatic officials posted in Japan (93–94). Whether Italian diplomats’ worries generated some concerns and responses in their home country or whether protests in Japan linked up to protests across the globe are unaddressed questions. A final issue concerns the question of chronology. The book's timeframe includes four decades from the beginning of the First War World to the end of Allied occupation of Japan. The last decade, the period in between 1943–1952, is only briefly touched upon in the seven-page book's epilogue. This choice is somewhat odd considering that, as the author argues, the period following the fall of fascism in Italy (i.e., post-1943) coincided with the “severance of the fascist link” and a “rereading of Japanese history with fascism left out” (137–140). Despite this choice, The Fascist Effect is an excellent book that would certainly be of great interest to scholars working on interwar Japan, Italy, and on the Axis Coalition in general as well as to scholars of fascism.