Kijūrō Shidehara

Kijūrō Shidehara was born in Osaka in 1872 and made his career in the Foreign Ministry before becoming vice minister in 1915 and ambassador to the United States in 1919. His American posting placed him at the center of two difficult negotiations: the treatment of Japanese immigrants and the settlement of naval and territorial questions after the First World War. ¹

During 1920–21, Shidehara held repeated discussions with American diplomat Roland Morris over restrictions on Japanese residents, particularly California’s alien land legislation. They produced a draft arrangement, but the incoming Harding administration did not carry it forward. ²

At the Washington Conference, Shidehara worked with Masanao Hanihara and Japan’s other delegates on a new Pacific settlement. He signed the February 1922 naval limitation treaty and the separate agreement with China over Shandong. The latter provided for the return of the former German leasehold at Kiaochow and the withdrawal of Japanese troops as Chinese police took over protection of the railway. His assistant Sadao Saburi also served as an intermediary during the conference. ^{3, 4, 2}

As foreign minister in the 1920s and early 1930s, Shidehara favored international cooperation and commercial relations with China. His response to the Nanjing crisis of 1927 illustrates the policy: he opposed an ultimatum and military retaliation that might weaken Chiang Kai-shek and deepen hostility to foreigners. Opponents attacked this restraint, while military action in Manchuria increasingly undermined the diplomatic approach associated with his name. ⁵

Shidehara became prime minister in October 1945 under the Allied occupation. His government undertook land and economic reforms and accepted the occupation authorities’ constitutional draft as the basis for negotiation. He left the premiership after the 1946 election, served in Shigeru Yoshida’s cabinet, and entered the elected House of Representatives in 1947. He was speaker of the House when he died in 1951. ⁶