Matsuoka's removal opens a narrow negotiating window

Matsuoka's foreign policy appears erratic, moving between the Tripartite Pact, a proposed attack on Singapore, and a proposed attack on the Soviet Union after Germany launched Barbarossa. His reversals and abuse of army leaders made him a liability even within Japan's expansionist government. Konoe's cabinet resigned and re-formed in July 1941 largely to remove him while retaining most of the other ministers. That maneuver created a narrow moment in which negotiation became more conceivable, even though the rest of Japanese policy remained contradictory.