Four phases of mediatization and the significance of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of Information: 1905–1922

Abstract

Abstract In August 1921, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially created the ‘Department of Information’ (Gaimushō Jōhōbu, DOI), to better perform MOFA’s propaganda and information management going forward. This was deemed necessary because the Ministry since the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) had failed to create comprehensive and coherent propaganda strategies. This article argues that the DOI was a significant addition to the structure of MOFA, by examining the period from the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) until the Washington Naval Conference (1921–1922) via the research concept of ‘mediatization’. The department allowed MOFA’s propaganda-making capabilities to reach a higher plateau going forward, and for the first time gave it a tool to perform propaganda in a centralized and professionalized way.