Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi has been studying ways to curb political influence on diplomacy, and is considering a policy to make public anytime a politician approaches ministry officials concerning ministry affairs, sources close to her said Sunday.
Kawaguchi, who has been instructed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to eradicate such influence, is considering including the idea of disclosure in a package of Foreign Ministry reform measures expected to be announced later this week.
The reform package is also likely to include a pledge to determine ministry posts regardless of seniority or line of work by tapping appropriate personnel from outside as well as within the ministry, the sources said.
Kawaguchi has received some 400 recommendations from ministry officials and employees for the reform package in response to her request for proposals.
Many of the proposals call for ministry personnel to change their conventional mentality, and some suggest the ministry stop hiring employees on two tracks -- fast-track career diplomats and the track for rank-and-file employees.
Koizumi appointed Kawaguchi to replace Makiko Tanaka in late January after Diet business was delayed by a dispute over contradictory statements given by Tanaka and Foreign Ministry bureaucrats over whether lawmaker Muneo Suzuki had pressured the ministry to bar two nongovernmental organizations from the Afghan donor conference last month.
The bureaucrats and Suzuki, a ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, denied there had been any pressure, and the government has issued a series of documents claiming that no specific lawmaker influenced the decision.
Suzuki allegedly pressured the ministry to bar the NGOs because one of their leaders, Kensuke Onishi, was quoted by news media as saying he mistrusts the government.