Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi is facing a new challenge to her reform efforts as the ministry's bureaucrats are rebelling against her decision to look to a rival ministry to fill a foreign aid commission.
Takeo Hiranuma, minister of economy, trade and industry, said Tuesday that Kawaguchi has officially asked him to recommend able personnel from his ministry for the Foreign Ministry's Economic Cooperation Bureau.
"I have received the request," Hiranuma said. "And we will consider who would be suitable."
However, several bureau heads and other senior officials of the Foreign Ministry oppose the idea, saying the Economic Cooperation Bureau, which handles official development assistance -- the core of Japan's diplomacy -- should be headed by a career diplomat.
The fact that Kawaguchi is a former trade ministry bureaucrat is also riling some Foreign Ministry bureaucrats, one official said.
Kawaguchi told reporters Tuesday morning that she is only "considering various options" at the moment, and declined comment on her conversation with Hiranuma or on any details of her personnel reshuffling plans.
But she stressed that appointing outside experts to senior posts is a key element of her reforms. She has already appointed several outsiders as ambassadors and named Hatsuhisa Takashima, a former NHK journalist and head of the U.N. Information Center in Tokyo, as the ministry's new spokesman.
Kawaguchi reportedly planned to announce a major reshuffle in early August but has since indicated that more time may be needed.
She said she has to take into account upcoming international conferences such as the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held in South Africa in late August, "because if I touch one post, many people will have to move."