TOWARD THE END of 1907, around the time of the Gentlemen's Agreement regarding Japanese emigration to the United States, one of Japan's most senior diplomats, who was soon to be reappointed as foreign minister, Komura Jutarō, invited Shibusawa Eiichi and his fellow members from the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce to consult about the situation between Japan and the United States. By that time, the discord triggered by the San Francisco School Board's expulsion of Japanese students from public schools had been more or less calmed under the exchange of notes known as the Gentlemen's Agreement. Even though the issue of discrimination against Japanese had been resolved for the time being, said Komura, the United States was still a land of public opinion. The incident demonstrated how each American state functions like an individual country with its own laws. In order to sustain peace with the United States, Japan should not only negotiate with Washington but also develop close relations between the Japanese and American people. Since there were chambers of commerce in American as well as Japanese cities, could Eiichi and his colleagues, Komura wondered, find some way to use these organizations to promote goodwill?

At that meeting, Eiichi seems to have grasped the importance of people-to-people diplomacy, and from that time onward he began to act with a consistent plan and a strong sense of duty to contribute to fostering international goodwill. From the founding of the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce in 1878, Eiichi had served continuously as its president, working assiduously to develop commerce and industry in Japan. He was determined, in the face of a long tradition of disdain for business, to elevate the status of people in commerce and industry. After he became gravely ill in 1904, however, he expressed his wish to resign from the position for health reasons. His resignation was finally acknowledged at the spring general meeting of 1905, and Nakano Buei (then president of the Tokyo Stock Exchange) succeeded him. Although Eiichi was then no longer in a position of direct responsibility, the strong urging of Komura and Nakano and his own deep awareness of the importance of the Japan-U.S. relationship drove him to use his still-powerful influence in the chamber to launch private-sector efforts aimed at improving relations.