Junior Second Rank Kenkichi Yoshizawa
芳澤 謙吉
Yoshizawa in 1931
Minister for Foreign Affairs
In office 14 January 1932 – 26 May 1932
Prime Minister	Inukai Tsuyoshi
Preceded by	Inukai Tsuyoshi
Succeeded by	Saitō Makoto
Member of thePrivy Council
In office 7 August 1945 – 17 April 1946
Monarch	Hirohito
Member of theHouse of Peers
In office 1 July 1932 – 19 August 1945 Nominated by theEmperor
Personal details
Born	(1874-01-24)24 January 1874 Jōetsu, Niigata,Japan
Died	5 January 1965(1965-01-05) (aged 90) Tokyo, Japan
Political party	Rikken Seiyūkai
Spouse	Misao Inukai ​ (m. 1905)​
Relatives	Inukai Tsuyoshi (father-in-law) Takeru Inukai (brother-in-law)
Alma mater	Tokyo Imperial University

Kenkichi Yoshizawa (芳澤 謙吉,Yoshizawa Kenkichi; 24 January 1874 – 5 January 1965) was a Japanesediplomat in theEmpire of Japan, serving as 46thForeign Minister of Japan in 1932. He was the father-in-law ofSadao Iguchi, a diplomat who served as Ambassador to the United States, and maternal grandfather ofSadako Ogata, the formerUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and maternal grandfather ofYutaka Kawashima, a formerGrand Chamberlain of Japan.

Yoshizawa was a native of what is now part ofJōetsu City,Niigata Prefecture. He was a graduate of theEnglish literature department of theTokyo Imperial University and entered theMinistry of Foreign Affairs in 1899.

In 1905, Yoshizawa married Misao Inukai, the eldest daughter of politician (and future Prime Minister)Tsuyoshi Inukai, and moved toLondon. He continued to live in England for the next several years, eventually becoming First Secretary to the Japanese embassy. He was given the post of Consul-General inHankou, China in 1912.

Yoshizawa was assigned to the Japaneseconsulate inAmoy,China in 1902, and later to the consulate inShanghai.

He served as Minister to China from 1923–1929, and was stationed at the Japanese consulates atBeijing andTianjin. He met withSoviet Foreign MinisterLev Karakhan inBeijing in 1925 for talks which led to the formal establishment ofdiplomatic relations between Japan and the Soviet Union per theSoviet–Japanese Basic Convention.^[1]

Yoshizawa later served asJapanese ambassador to France and official representative to theLeague of Nations.^[2]

He was appointed to the cabinet of his father-in-law,Prime MinisterInukai Tsuyoshi, as Foreign Minister from 14 January 1932 to 26 May 1932. On receiving word of his appointment, Yoshizawa traveled from Europe back to Japan via theTrans-Siberian Railway andManchuria to see conditions first-hand.^[3] Following the assassination of Inukai in theMay 15 Incident, the Inukai cabinet was dissolved. However, Yoshizawa received an appointment to theHouse of Peers (present dayHouse of Councillors) by command ofEmperor Shōwa, and joined theRikken Seiyūkai political party.

In the period immediately prior to the start of thePacific War, Yoshizawa was appointed as a special envoy by Prime MinisterFumimaro Konoe to theNetherlands East Indies following the diplomatic mission ofIchizo Kobayashi. Yoshizawa was assigned to present a new set of demands to the Dutch government inBatavia, which were deliberately intended to be unacceptable.^[4]

• Adherence to Japan's vision and policy in South East Asia,
• Unrestricted rights to explore and exploit minerals all over the Dutch East Indies
• Unrestricted fishing and shipping rights in all the waters of the Dutch East Indies
• Unrestricted rights to start all sorts of commercial enterprises
• Japan's export to the Dutch East Indies must be increased to more than 80% of all imports of the Dutch East Indies
• The existing demand for oil was slightly increased to 3,800,000 tons
• The Dutch East Indies was to supply Japan with 1,000,000 tons of tin, 400,000 tons of bauxite, 180,000 tons of nickel, 30,000 tons of rubber, 30,000 tons of coconut oil and 10,000 tons of sugar.
• Airline and telegraph connections between Japan and the Dutch East Indies

In December 1940, Yoshizawa was met byHubertus Johannes van Mook, deputy minister of Economic Affairs,K. L. J. Enthoven, director of Justice, andHoessein Djajadiningrat, director of Education and Religion. The negotiations dragged on unsuccessfully, and on 11 June 1941, the Liaison Meeting of the Imperial General Headquarters and Government decided to recall Yoshizawa and terminate the talks.^[5] Yoshizawa suddenly announced to the Dutch his plan to depart and asked to be received by the Dutch Governor-GeneralA. W. L. Tjarda van Starkenborgh Stachouwer on 17 June 1941. The latter was worried that he might receive adeclaration of war, but to his relief Yoshizawa only handed him a draft declaration stating that the negotiations had ended without an agreement.

From 1941–1944, Yoshizawa served as Japanese ambassador toFrench Indochina. The posting was mostly symbolic, as by then Indochina was mostly under Japanese military occupation. In August 1945, he became a member of thePrivy Council.

After theend of World War II, thesurrender of Japan, Yoshizawa was purged from public office by theAmerican occupation authorities. Inpost-war Japan, he was appointed as Japanese ambassador to the Republic of China onTaiwan in 1952. He retired from public life in December 1956.

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