Chapter Added Diplomacy Machine
1. Upgrading of Diplomacy Implementation Machine
The activities of the Foreign Ministry, which is tackling diplomatic issues confronting Japan in changing the international situation dynamically, are supported by 4,060 staff and employees (at the end of fiscal 1987) at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo and 171 diplomatic establishments overseas (embassies, consulates-general, consulates and government missions). The need for reinforcing diplomatic activites has been increasing under the present international situation and the Foreign Ministry has been striving to strengthen the machinery of domestic and overseas establishments, increase the payroll, expand the budget and take other measures to upgrade the diplomacy implementation system.
(1) Organization and Payroll
(a) In the wake of the illegal export of security-sensitive machine tool to the Soviet Union by Toshiba Machine Co. in 1987 and subsequent developments, the Foreign Ministry decided to set up the Economic Security Division within the Economic Affairs Bureau by securing funds in the fiscal 1988 budget. Moreover, the Ministry decided to establish five ministerial ordinance level posts, including three senior assistants, and one senior assistant for analysis and one regional coordinator.
As for Japan's diplomatic establishments abroad, the Ministry decided to set up a new embassy in Yemen. As a result, the number of Japanese diplomatic establishments abroad will be 172 at the end of fiscal 1988 (107 embassies, 58 consulates-general, two consulates and five permanent government missions to international organizations.
(b) Bearing in mind that an increase of the personnel is essential for the improvement and upgrading of foreign service, the Foreign Ministry has formulated "The Plan for the increase of the Personnel up to 5,000" and has been making efforts for its realization. In fiscal 1988, the Ministry put particular emphasis on the upgrading of the function of the following fields; gathering and analysis of information, economy and economic cooperation administraion, public information and cultural activities, consular administration (including protection of Japanese nationals abroad) and administrative support for the Ministry's activities. Despite the severe budgetary constraints, the Ministry managed to achieve the increase of the staff by 102 in the year; 34 at the home ministry and 68 at overseas posts (net increase of 88 if the reduction of 45 under the personnel ceiling cut program is deducted and the transfer from other ministries and agencies through. the acceptance of attaches and so is added).
(2) Budget
The Foreign Minsitry has been striving to expand its budget steadily, despite severe financial conditions. In the fiscal 1988 budget, the Ministry saw its appropriations grow \17.2 billion or by 4.1% from the previous year to \441.6 billion with emphasis placed on the following six points:
(a) Increase in the number of personnel
(b) Upgrading of the foreign policy apparatus, for example, through improving the environment of overseas assignments
(c) Expansion of ODA and other forms of international cooperation
(d) Strengthening of the information-processing capabilities
(e) Step-up in public information activities abroad and cultural exchanges
(f) Improvement and expansion of the measures for Japanese nationals abroad
2. Classification, Preservation, Compilation and Publication of Diplomatic Records
The Ministry has spared no efforts for classification and preservation of documents on diplomatic records since it was established. In 1971, the Ministry opened the Diplomatic Record Office in Azabudai, Minato-ku, Tokyo, as the facility for providing diplomatic records and documents. The Diplomatic Record Office possesses about 48,000 volumes of diplomatic documents covering from the last days of the Tokugawa Period to the end of World War II and many historical materials, such as treaty texts, credentials and personal letters of heads of states. They are offered for public perusal and used for display and answering inquiries from outside.
The Ministry, which has been publishing "Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy" since 1936, published in fiscal 1987 the first volume of "the League of Nations General Disarmament Conference Reports" and the first volume, second section of the first Showa Period, which includes documents related to the Treaty for the Renunciation of War, raising the cumulative total of such documents to 166. It also published the first volume of the "Journal of the Diplomatic Record Office" in a move to supply information on diplomatic material to a broad range of people.
Moreover, since 1976, the Ministry has been in principle making public, offering for public perusal at the Diplomatic Record Office, such diplomatic records that are 30 years old or older and the classification work has been completed. The latest and ninth disclosure was done in December 1987, which made 20,000 pages of records newly available to the public, related to the Japan-U.S. Administrative Agreement, the Japan-China Peace Treaty, the Korean War, etc.