Negotiations for the first Japanese emperor to visit China in 1992 were kept so secret that the prime minister at the time, Kiichi Miyazawa, complained he was not sufficiently consulted.

China repeatedly requested that Emperor Akihito visit after he ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne in 1989.

Diplomatic documents released by the Foreign Ministry on Dec. 20 stated that on Dec. 17, 1991, a month after Miyazawa became prime minister, high-ranking ministry officials that included Hisashi Owada, the vice minister, met and discussed Akihito’s possible trip to China.

“The 20th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations would be a great opportunity,” said Sakutaro Tanino, who served as director-general of the Asian Affairs Bureau. “It would be a visit made after a strong request” from China.

Chief of Protocol Junichi Nakamura proposed that Akihito visit in autumn 1992 and subsequent discussions centered on that timing.

According to the documents, on Dec. 27, 1991, Owada explained the meeting to Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Kato.

“Domestically, the majority opinion is that (the emperor) visiting China should be made to signify a new stage in Japan-China relations,” he said.

Owada added that international opinion toward China regarding its 1989 crackdown of prodemocracy activists at Tiananmen Square had reached a consensus that China should not be isolated, due in part to efforts made by Japan until then.

He told Kato that he did not think Akihito visiting China would pose any problems.

Foreign Minister Michio Watanabe would secretly sound out his Chinese counterparts about the emperor visiting when he went to Beijing in January 1992, Owada also told Kato.

During his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen, Watanabe proposed Akihito visit from Oct. 22 to Oct. 27, 1992, and added that it would be difficult to change the itinerary because of the imperial family’s busy schedule. Watanabe asked for a prompt reply.

Watanabe also asked Qian not to publicize the dates because of “the fear that rightists would voice major opposition if the itinerary were released too early.”

Watanabe proposed that for the briefing about their meeting, Qian should request a visit in the autumn during the 20th anniversary of the normalization of the two nations’ relations. Watanabe said his reply should be passed on as “we will consider the matter seriously.”

That is how the exchange between the two was announced to reporters.

In late February, Chinese officials informed Japanese Ambassador Hiroshi Hashimoto that they agreed to the timetable for the emperor’s visit and said they wanted to begin discussing specific ceremonial events to be held during the trip.

But at about that time, China approved a territorial waters law that clearly stated the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea were Chinese territory.

That led to increased opposition from within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party regarding Akihito’s trip.

The Miyazawa administration was forced to placate the opposition within the LDP while also asking for restraint from China.

The diplomatic documents have Miyazawa saying in April 1992 that he was not sufficiently consulted at the time of Watanabe’s trip to China in January.

The Miyazawa Cabinet formally approved Akihito’s October visit in late August of that year.

The documents also showed that Foreign Ministry officials were eager to have the visit made while Deng Xiaoping still exerted power as supreme leader of China.

In the Dec. 17, 1991, meeting of high-ranking Foreign Ministry officials, Tanino, the head of the Asian Affairs Bureau, said Deng might not live to see 1992 and added that waiting for the 30th anniversary of the normalization of relations would be too late.

The diplomatic documents also had parts that were blacked out that seem to represent the views Akihito expressed to government officials.

A Foreign Ministry official explained that the blacked-out parts represented personal information about the emperor that did not require disclosure under the provisions of the Public Records and Archives Management Law.

Akihito abdicated to his oldest son, Emperor Naruhito, in 2019 and is now emperor emeritus.

(This article was written by Naotaka Fujita, senior staff writer, and Ryota Goto.)

***

This article is part of a series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry in December 2023.