6. Business Leaders as Civilian Diplomats in Early Twentieth-Century Japan

Japan’s victory in the Russo-Japanese War led to the incorporation of Korea into the Japanese empire. Japan’s growing power in East Asia coupled with the start of the Chinese Revolution in 1911 destabilized the region. Europeans and Americans feared that Japan and China might unite and threaten European and American strategic and commercial interests in the region. Proud of their economic and military achievements, Japanese leaders resented racist “Yellow Peril” rhetoric in Europe and exclusionary immigration policies in the United States. Hoping that international exchanges between business leaders would reduce tensions, Shibusawa Eiichi participated in several goodwill missions abroad after his retirement from most business positions in the early 1900s.