Ex-Japanese diplomat tells Tehran Times why he wrote ‘Why the United States Lost to Iran’

Mitsugu Saito, former Japanese Ambassador to Iran (October 2018–October 2020), has spent decades studying the Middle East, and his latest book, “Why the United States Lost to Iran” (Bungeishunju Ltd., July 2026, 224 pages), argues that Washington misjudged its political objectives in the recent war with Iran. The book, published with an initial print run of 10,000 copies — a notably large figure in Japan for a specialized foreign-policy title — follows his 2022 work, “Is Iran a Threat? — A Regional Power on the Strait of Hormuz and Japan’s Diplomacy” (Iwanami Shoten).