Place: Shibuya Kyoiku Gakuen (1-21-18 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo150-0002)
About 10 minutes on foot from Shibuya Station (JR East Exit; subway Miyamasu Exit 10 or 11; or 15 minutes from Omotesando Station, Exit B2; or 15 minutes from Meiji-Jingumae Station, Exit 4. The road forking right from Meiji-dori is quite obvious, and the Gakuen is the first big building after a row of shops, with a waterfall streaming down one wall.)

Information: ASJ Office

In 1900, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Gaimushô) started to organize the circulation of public information following lukewarm Western press reactions to the Japanese military intervention in the Boxer Rising. However, no independent unit was set up at that time to handle public information activities. A strong propaganda offensive by the Chinese delegation at Versailles made clear to Japan the need for some kind of organized response. Hara Takashi instructed Ijûin Hikokichi to draw up plans for an institution, but Ijûin's proposals were deemed impractical and replaced by a smaller, less controversial scheme put together by Hara Takashi. Hara's plan was backed by a group of reformers within the Gaimushô who were seeking a more open form of diplomacy.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs Information Department (Gaimushô Jôhôbu) was started up in April 1920 and was opened formally in August 1921, along the lines of Hara's plan. Further along the way, elements of Ijûin's plan were actualized in the formation of the Cabinet Information Bureau (Naikaku Jôhôkyoku) in December 1940. Dr. Matsumura's paper will follow the process of establishment, and look at the thinking behind the new body. It will consider the leadership provided by Ijûin Hikokichi, the department's first director (Gaimushô Jôhôbuchô), and examine the involvement of contemporary politicians.

Dr. Matsumura entered the Foreign Service in 1952 after graduating from Tokyo University, and held posts in London and New York. In 1975 he moved to the Japan Foundation, where he later became director of the Audio-Visual Affairs Department and also director of the Washington and New York offices. He was awarded an LL.D. from Keio University in 1979, and from 1985-88 he was engaged as a visiting researcher at the East Asian Institute of Columbia University, New York. From 1988-98 he lectured in International Relations at as a Professor at Teikyo University, and since then has been a lecturer at the College of International Relations of Nihon University at Mishima. His publications (in Japanese) include: The Russo-Japanese War and Baron Kentarô Kaneko (1980), The Road to Portsmouth: Baron Suyematsu in London (1987), and The History of International Exchange in Modern Japan (1996).

Adapted from "The Asiatic Society of Japan Bulletin No. 9", November 2001, compiled by Prof. Hugh E. Wilkinson and Mrs. Doreen Simmons.

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