Ideas, Identity and Ideology in Contemporary Japan: The Sato Masaru Phenomenon 現代日本における思考形態−−佐藤優現象 Gavan McCormack Outline Sato Masaru is a name virtually unknown outside Japan (recognized by Google and Wikipedia’s English language search engines only through footnotes from earlier texts by this author) but inescapable within Japan. He may indeed be the most prolific and widely read Japanese intel