In 1942, he held secret meetings with Fumimaro Konoe and others in the upper levels of the Japanese government who hoped to bring a quick end to the Second Sino-Japanese War and an armistice with Kuomintang.
Roosevelt told Ambassador Nomura that he would like to see more details of Konoe's proposal, and he suggested that Juneau, Alaska, might be a good spot for a meeting.
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Following a translation by American journalist Thomas Franklin Fairfax Millard, Japanese political advisor Saionji Kinmochi wrote a rebuttal in his journal, Millard's Review.
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That very evening, he arranged a secret dinner conference with American Ambassador Joseph Grew.
Considered successful in his mission to establish a profitable for the Japanese Empire economy in Manchouria, he was recalled to Japan in 1940 where he was selected to serve as chief "Project Department" inside the Finance Ministry to implement the economic reorganization of Japan under the Taisei Yokusankai in the second Konoe Cabinet.