The body politic needs a good purgative once in a while, but last week Japan's nearly got an overdose. For three days it looked as if 113 members of the Foreign Office Staff—all but the Vice Minister, four bureau chiefs and a handful of clerks and translators—would pass out of the political bloodstream entirely.
Month ago the Cabinet decided it would like to create a Trade Ministry. In order that this Ministry might have something to do, the Cabinet voted to give it the trade jurisdictions of the Foreign Office. But this left...