Ichizō Kobayashi

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Ichizo Kobayashi

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Ichizō Kobayashi (小林一三, Kobayashi Ichizō^?) (1873–1957) was a Japanese industrialist and Minister of Commerce and Industry. He was a believer of right-wing doctrines, and representative of Japanese capital in Government.

He founded Mino-o Arima Electric Tramway Company (then Hankyu Corp., Present: Hankyu Hanshin Holdings, Inc.) in 1907. Later Kobayashi was president of council of Tokyo Gasu Denky. In the 1940 Konoye Cabinet he was appointed to charge of the Commerce and Industry Ministry.^[1]

He joined the Taisei Yokusankai Group, with Shozo Murata and Akira Kazami. They supported a fresh political and economic militarist-socialist program,. Kobayashi had faith in Adolf Hitler's policies; he interviewed by the press during a business visit to Germany. He stood for capitalist interests in Asian conquests, and a totalitarian right-socialist government.

[edit] Kobayashi diplomatic mission, September 1940

Ichizo Kobayashi was commissioned by the Foreign Affairs Office, to lead a diplomatic mission to the Dutch East Indies in 1940. Negotiations were for a new agreement on Dutch oil. During September 12 1940, a Japanese delegation of 24, led by Ichizo Kobayashi as the Minister of Commerce and Industry, arrived in Batavia to renegotiate political and economic relations between Japan and the Dutch East Indies. Included were six high-ranking military officers, one of them Rear-Admiral Tadashi Maeda.

The Dutch Embassy in Japan did not actively take part, although the Dutch Ambassador in Tokyo, J .C. Pabst, received the first list of Japanese economic demands already in June 1940. Later, all further negotiations were to conducted via the Dutch colonial administration in Batavia, and received support from the Japanese Consulate General, in the persons of Matatoshi Saito (before 1941) and later by Yutaka Ishizawa.

Their first demand was an increase of petrol exports to Japan from the existing 570,000 tons in 1939 to 3,750,000 tons, about 50% of the total Dutch East Indies production. The Dutch answer was that existing obligations would only permit an increase to about 1,800,000 tons. Kobayashi initially accepted this proposal, but was soon recalled to Japan on October 2, 1940.

Another diplomatic commission was then led by Kenkichi Yoshizawa.