The third chapter covers Hirota’s diplomatic career between his entrance to the foreign ministry in 1906 to his appointment as foreign minister in 1933, a period in which he served as minister to the Netherlands and ambassador to the Soviet Union. He also held various positions in China, the United States, and at the ministry in Tokyo. In examining his early career, the chapter focuses on the major factions within the foreign ministry of the 1920s, describing the dominant position held by Foreign Minister Shidehara Kijūrō and the rise of the Reformist (Asian) faction that would come to the fore in the 1930s. It also reviews the major aspects of Soviet-Japanese relations in the late 1920s and early 1930s, including the impact that the Manchurian Incident and creation of Manchukuo had on those relations in particular and on Japanese foreign policy as a whole. Hirota’s career within the foreign ministry had only been moderately successful as of this stage in his life, partially due to disagreements with the Shidehara faction; however, it was the distance that he maintained from that faction and his successful tenure as ambassador to the USSR that would propel him to a leading role in the 1930s.