2012 Volume 2012 Issue 168 Pages 168_1-15
This paper focuses on the organizational reform within the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in the interwar period and examines the impact that the newly established bureau, the Asian Affairs Bureau, had on the overall character of the MOFA's leadership and its diplomacy toward China in the period.
In late 1910s, the MOFA developed an idea to establish two new bureaus for its organization improvement: the General Affairs Bureau and the Far East Affairs Bureau. The purpose for establishing the former bureau was to clarify the division of roles between holding talks with the diet and conducting ordinary affairs within the ministry. The aim for establishing the latter bureau was to develop a more effective investment policy toward China.
The MOFA, however, could not achieve the desired goals. Instead, in October 1920, it established two new regional bureaus: the Asian Affairs Bureau and the European and American Affairs Bureau. Nonetheless, both bureaus lacked a function to coordinate its policy making with the MOFA's overall diplomatic policies.
In this context, the MOFA set up the Counselor Conference in August 1920 with the intention to take charge of the overall coordination and administration with each bureau. For that purpose, the MOFA adopted the Counselor Conference System in which the counselors were placed in “line positions” in each bureau which directly involved in policy making instead of being placed in “staff positions” which provided services and assistance to persons in line positions.
The system, however, did not function effectively. In response, the MOFA devised yet another system called the Regional Bureau Initiative System in 1925. The system, contrary to the previous one, was to give each regional bureau exclusive authority to control over affairs within its jurisdiction. Consequently, in the case of the Asian Affairs Bureau, control over the Chinese and Manchurian Railway policy was transferred to the First Asia Division from the Second Asia Division, which meant that policy making of the Asian Affairs Bureau would be virtually unaffected from the MOFA's overall diplomatic policies.
Under the new system, the MOFA succeeded in giving the Asian Affairs Bureau greater independence to efficiently develop diplomatic strategy for China. The system, however, was also costly since the MOFA lost the coordinating functions for its overall diplomatic policies. It can be said that the establishment of the Asian Affairs Bureau under the new system changed the character of the MOFA's leadership, and the Asian Affairs Bureau itself became vulnerable to intervention by the men in uniform.
