The Foreign Ministry, its public image badly tarnished by scandals, has launched a comprehensive effort to put its house in order. A reform package unveiled by Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi on Tuesday, less than two weeks after she took up the post, conveys a sense of urgency. It is aptly titled Ten Reforms for an Open Foreign Ministry.
One reform is to establish a transparent relationship between ministry bureaucrats and Diet members. The primary purpose is to eliminate undue political intervention in foreign affairs. Politicians are often suspected of using their influence to bend the rules of diplomacy in their favor, as indicated by a recent episode involving Liberal Democratic Party legislator Muneo Suzuki, the former chairman of the Lower House Steering Committee, who is said to have close ties to the Foreign Ministry.
Mr. Suzuki allegedly pressured ministry officials to prevent two Japanese nongovernmental organizations -- which had apparently antagonized him for making provocative remarks -- from attending last moth's Tokyo conference on Afghan reconstruction. Then-Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka, who involved herself in the row to defend the NGOs, was dismissed, along with her top aide, for "causing trouble." Mr. Suzuki had to resign from his post for a similar reason.