View source for Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan)

{{More footnotes needed|date=May 2022}}
{{Short description|Government ministry of Japan}}{{Infobox government agency
| agency_name     = Ministry of Foreign Affairs
| nativename      = {{lang|ja|外務省}}
| nativename_r    = Gaimu-shō
| seal            = Seal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.svg
| seal_width      = 100
| seal_caption    = Seal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
| picture         = Ministry-of-Foreign-Affairs-Japan-01.jpg
| picture_caption = Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building
| formed          = {{Start date and age|1869|8|15}}
| jurisdiction    = [[Government of Japan]]
| headquarters    = 2-2-1 [[Kasumigaseki]], [[Chiyoda, Tokyo|Chiyoda-ku]], [[Tokyo]] 100-8919, [[Japan]]
| employees       = 6281
| minister1_name  = [[Toshimitsu Motegi]], [[Minister for Foreign Affairs (Japan)|Minister for Foreign Affairs]]
| deputyminister1_name = [[Iwao Horii]]
| deputyminister2_name = [[Ayano Kunimitsu]]
| chief1_name     = [[Masataka Okano]]
| chief1_position = Undersecretary
| chief2_name     = [[Masahiro Takamura]]
| chief2_position = State Minister
| chief3_name     = [[Yoichi Takamura]]
| chief3_position = State Minister
| chief4_name     = [[Yasushi Hosaka]]
| chief4_position = State Minister
| parent_agency   = 
| website         = {{URL|http://www.mofa.go.jp}}
| coordinates     = {{coord|35|40|26.4|N|139|44|56.4|E|type:landmark_region:JP|display=inline}}
}}

The {{Nihongo|'''Ministry of Foreign Affairs'''|外務省|Gaimu-shō|lead=yes}} is an [[Ministry of Japan|executive department]] of the [[Government of Japan]], and is responsible for the country's [[foreign policy of Japan|foreign policy]] and [[international relations]].

The ministry was established by the second term of the third article of the National Government Organization Act,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/law/detail_main?vm=&id=13 |title=国家行政組織法 / National Government Organization Act |publisher=Japaneselawtranslation.go.jp |date=1948-07-10 |access-date=2020-06-02}}</ref> and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Establishment Act. According to the law, the mission of the ministry is "to aim at improvement of the profits of Japan and Japanese nationals, while contributing to maintenance of peaceful and safe international society, and, through an active and eager measure, both to implement good international environment and to keep and develop harmonic foreign relationships".

== Policy formulation ==
{{unreferencedsect|date=March 2024}}
Under the [[Constitution of Japan|1947 constitution]], the [[Cabinet of Japan|cabinet]] exercises primary responsibility for the conduct of foreign affairs, subject to the overall supervision of the [[National Diet]]. The [[Prime Minister of Japan|prime minister]] is required to make periodic reports on foreign relations to the Diet, whose [[House of Councillors|upper]] and [[House of Representatives of Japan|lower houses]] each have a foreign affairs committee. Each committee reports on its deliberations to plenary sessions of the chamber to which it belongs. Ad hoc committees are formed occasionally to consider special questions. Diet members have the right to raise pertinent policy questions—officially termed interpellations—to the [[Minister for Foreign Affairs (Japan)|minister for foreign affairs]] and the prime minister. Treaties with foreign countries require ratification by the Diet. As head of state, the [[Emperor of Japan|emperor]] performs the ceremonial function of receiving foreign envoys and attesting to foreign treaties ratified by the Diet.

As the chief executive and constitutionally the dominant figure in the political system, the prime minister has the final word in major foreign policy decisions. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, a member of the cabinet, acts as the prime minister's chief adviser in matters of planning and implementation. The minister is assisted by two vice ministers: one in charge of administration, who was at the apex of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs structure as its senior career official, and the other in charge of political liaison with the Diet. Other key positions in the ministry include members of the ministry's Secretariat, which has divisions handling consular, emigration, communications, and cultural exchange functions, and the directors of the various regional and functional bureaus in the ministry.

The ministry's staff includes an elite career foreign service corps, recruited on the basis of a competitive examination and thereafter trained by the ministry's Foreign Service Training Institute. The handling of specific foreign policy issues is usually divided between the geographic and functional bureaus to minimize overlap and competition. In general, bilateral issues are assigned to the geographic bureaus, and multilateral problems to the functional bureaus. The Treaties Bureau, with its wide-ranging responsibilities, tend to get involved in the whole spectrum of issues. The Information Analysis, Research, and Planning Bureau engages in comprehensive and coordinated policy investigation and planning.

Long a profession of high social prestige, diplomatic service from the [[Meiji period]] through [[World War II]] was a preserve of the upper social strata. In addition to formal qualifications, important prewar requirements for admission were proper social origin, family connections, and graduation from [[Tokyo Imperial University]] (the present-day [[University of Tokyo]]). After World War II, these requirements were changed as part of democratic reform measures but foreign service continued to be a highly regarded career. Most career foreign service officers had passed the postwar Higher Foreign Service Examination before entry into the service. Many of these successful examinees were graduates of the prestigious [[Graduate Schools for Law and Politics and Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo|Law Faculty of the University of Tokyo]]. Almost all ambassadorial appointments since the 1950s have been made from among veteran diplomats.

Diplomacy in postwar Japan was not a monopoly of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Given the overriding importance of economic factors in foreign relations, the ministry worked closely with the [[Ministry of Finance (Japan)|Ministry of Finance]] on matters of customs, tariffs, international finance, and foreign aid; with the [[Ministry of International Trade and Industry]] (MITI) on exports and imports; and with the [[Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Japan)|Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries]] on questions of foreign agricultural imports and fishing rights. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also consulted other agencies, such as the [[Ministry of Defense (Japan)|Defense Agency]], the [[Fair Trade Commission (Japan)|Fair Trade Commission]], the [[Japan Bank for International Cooperation|Japan Export-Import Bank]] (JEXIM), the Japan External Trade Organization ([[JETRO]]), the [[Foreign aid institutions of Japan|Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund]], and the [[Overseas Technical Cooperation Agency]]. On many issues affecting the country's foreign economic activities—and thus its diplomatic relations as well—the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and sometimes MITI and the Ministry of Finance were known to favor liberalizing import restrictions. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries and other domestic ministries, however, took a more [[protectionism|protectionist]] stand, evidently because of pressures from special interest groups.

The vital importance of foreign affairs expanded to affect virtually every aspect of national life in postwar Japan, and the multiplicity of agencies involved in external affairs continued to be a source of confusion and inefficiency in the formulation of foreign policy. Yet as the postwar generation of leaders and policymakers began to assume a greater role in government decision making and as public attitudes on foreign policy issues matured, there were indications that foreign affairs were being conducted on the basis of a more stable consensus.

The current Minister for Foreign Affairs is [[Takeshi Iwaya]].

== Diplomatic Bluebook ==
The {{Nihongo|Diplomatic Bluebook|外交青書|Gaikō Seisho}} is an annual report produced by the Ministry outlining the government's foreign policy and assessment of international political trends.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hurst |first1=Daniel |title=Japan's Diplomatic Policy Outline Reveals Shifts on North Korea, Russia |url=https://thediplomat.com/2019/05/japans-diplomatic-policy-outline-reveals-shifts-on-north-korea-russia/ |publisher=The Diplomat |access-date=27 June 2020 |date=2 May 2019}}</ref> The [[Diplomatic Bluebook of Japan|Bluebook]] was first issued in 1957.<ref>{{cite web |title=外交青書 |url=https://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/bluebook/index.html |website=Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan |access-date=27 June 2020 |language=ja}}</ref> The report can trigger reactions from other countries upset with relevant Japanese policy. For instance, the omission of the phrase "South Korea is our most important neighbor" and the addition of "South Korea's occupation of [the [[Liancourt Rocks]]] is illegal" in the 2018 Bluebook caused significant controversy with the South Korean government.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Choe |first1=Ki-weon |last2=Kim |first2=Ji-eun |title=Japan sharpens hardline language about Korea in foreign policy report |url=http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/844899.html |access-date=27 June 2020 |work=Hankoryeh |date=16 May 2018}}</ref>

== Main branches (modern) ==
*Minister's Secretariat
*Chief of Protocol
*Press Secretary / Director-General for Press and Public Relations
*Public Diplomacy Department
*Foreign Policy Bureau
*Disarmament, Non-Proliferation and Science Department
*Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau
*Southeast and Southwest Asian Affairs Department
*North American Affairs Bureau
*Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Bureau
*European Affairs Bureau
*Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau
*Director-General for Sub-Saharan African Affairs
*Economic Affairs Bureau
*International Cooperation Bureau
*Director-General for Global Issues
*International Legal Affairs Bureau
*Consular Affairs Bureau
*Intelligence and Analysis Service
*Foreign Service Training Institute

== See also ==
*[[Minister for Foreign Affairs (Japan)|List of ministers for foreign affairs]] of Japan
*[[List of diplomatic missions of Japan]]
*[[Foreign policy of Japan]]
*[[Foreign relations of Japan]]
*[[Gaikoku bugyō]]
*[[Thomas Baty]], former legal advisor to the ministry
*[[Katsuhiko Oku]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}
* {{Country study}} – [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/jptoc.html Japan]
* ''Kenkyusha's New Japanese–English Dictionary''. Kenkyusha Limited. Tokyo. 1991. {{ISBN|4-7674-2015-6}}.

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan}}
* {{Official website|https://www.mofa.go.jp/index.html}}

{{Coord|35.674|N|139.749|E|display=title|source:dewiki}}

{{Ministries of Japan}}
{{Foreign relations of Japan}}
{{JapanEmpireNavbox}}
{{Foreign affairs ministries of the World}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ministry Of Foreign Affairs (Japan)}}
[[Category:Foreign relations of Japan]]
[[Category:Foreign affairs ministries|Japan]]
[[Category:Government ministries of Japan|Foreign Affairs]]
[[Category:Government ministries established in 1947|Japan, Foreign Affairs]]
[[Category:1947 establishments in Japan]]