Manchukuo would bring Japan favor from the United States and other Western nations. Inuzuka believed that gaining the favor of the Jewish people was crucial, as the Jews, in his mind, controlled the world markets. The Five Ministers' Conference in 1938 provided the formal go-ahead for Inuzuka and his colleagues to begin setting up a Jewish settlement in Shanghai. In 1939, Inuzuka, along with Colonel Yasue and Ishiguro Shiro of the Foreign Ministry, recommended that Japan set up an autonomous Jewish region near Shanghai; by providing a safe place for Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany to settle, and granting them the political and economic autonomy to live as they desired. In a report to his superiors that year, Inuzuka compared the Jews to fugu, the famous poisonous fish delicacy that if not prepared correctly could turn lethal. Thus, Inuzuka's plans regarding the Jews came to be known as the Fugu Plan. Inuzuka, fluent in English, Russian, and French, visited countless schools and synagogues, discussing Jewish problems and seeking aid or support from Jewish communities and organizations. He helped form the Pacific Trading Company, a joint Jewish-Japanese endeavor, and met with many of East Asia's top Jewish leaders, both religious and financial. Over the next few years, Inuzuka was central to the operations of nearly every aspect of the Fugu Plan. Along with Yasue and a handful of others he coordinated everything from choosing and setting up sites for settlements, transporting Jews to the settlements, speaking with Jewish community leaders to gain economic and moral support, and working of course within the bounds granted him by the Japanese government and military. By 1942, however, the Plan fell apart. Japanese aid for Jews would not be tolerated by Japan's ally, Nazi Germany, and Japanese attempts to shuttle Jews through the Soviet Union were halted when Germany launched its invasion of Russia. In 1941, Inuzuka's help in rescuing Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe was acknowledged and Inuzuka was granted a silver cigarette case by the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States; the interior of the case bore an inscription thanking Inuzuka for his services to the Jewish people. He was transferred by the Navy to the Philippines in 1943, and after the war, the cigarette case saved him from being tried as a war criminal. The case was later donated to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. Inuzuka established the