<Articles>Negotiations for Treaty Revisions in the Period of Minister for Foreign Affairs Aoki Shuzo : The Planning Process and the International Environment

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  • <論説>青木外相期の条約改正交渉 : 方針形成と国際環境
  • 青木外相期の条約改正交渉--方針形成と国際環境
  • アオキ ガイショウ キ ノ ジョウヤク カイセイ コウショウ ホウシン ケイセイ ト コクサイ カンキョウ

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The decision of the cabinet meeting of December 10, 1889 to take corrective measures following Okuma's negotiations for treaty revision, was to record two conflicting opinions: the first consisted of the proposal of Kowashi Inoue, the chief of the Legislation Bureau, and Miyoji Ito, the chief secretary of the Privy Council, insisting on rejection of the ratification of the new treaties, which had already been signed; and the second of Kaoru Inoue, minister for agriculture and commerce, and Shuzo Aoki, the Vice-minister for foreign affairs, which was the main position of the cabinet, demanded modifications in the new treaties. Anxious about the possibility of intervention by Germany or other Treaty Powers while the Japanese government was weakened and in disunity and fearing that a majority in the first parliament would push the government to take some dangerous step such as a denunciation of the existing treaties, the British government, on the other hand, decided to abandon demands for the appointment of foreign adjudicators and to take preemptive action by submitting new counter proposals. The Yamagata administration, deprived by the English government proposals of shifting responsibility for the delay of treaty revisions and unable to start negotiations itself out of consideration of the advocates of equal treaties, faced a dilemma. In the end, Aoki, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, seized the initiative and started full negotiations, and the Yamagata administration resigned at the close of the first parliament. Aoki was in effect replaced and negotiations were suspended. These results, however, also meant that each party achieved its own ends: for Japan, the withdrawal of Okuma's proposals, and for Great Britain, the avoidance of the risk of being made into a scapegoat.

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  • 史林

    史林 87 (4), 486-517, 2004-07-01

    THE SHIGAKU KENKYUKAI (The Society of Historical Research), Kyoto University

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