Corruption at the Foreign Ministry has come to a head following the arrest of two assistant division directors earlier this month on suspicion of breach of trust. Last year, three assistant division directors and a clerk were arrested on suspicion of embezzlement and fraud. Several senior ministry officials have been disciplined for overlooking their subordinates' wrongdoing and for failing to prevent undue interference in ministry policy by lawmaker Muneo Suzuki.

Former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka once aptly characterized the ministry as a hotbed of corruption. An advisory panel of outside experts appointed by Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, who replaced Tanaka when the latter was dismissed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in February, recently came up with an interim report on ministry reform. Ironically, the day before the report was released, a diplomatic row started between Japan and China over the removal of five North Korean asylum seekers from the grounds of the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang by armed Chinese police.

Japanese diplomats' inept handling of the affair stirred even stronger demands for ministry reform. The report, which included severe criticism of ministry practices, recommended, among other things, that: