Furthermore, he added Shojiro GOTO, Shinpei ETO and Takato OKI to Sangi (the Councilor) in order to make up the loss of political power (although it was not totally unreasonable because GOTO became chairman of Council of the Left, only ETO and OKI were exceptionally not incumbent councilors among kyo of ministries at that time, and a policy of holding two posts of kyo and sangi concurrently was hammered out after OKUBO returned to Japan), which raised distrust of OKUBO and KIDO as well, who had only limited information while being away from home.
またその政治力の欠を補うために後藤象二郎・江藤新平・大木喬任を参議に追加した（ただし、後藤が左院議長、当時の各省の卿の中で江藤・大木のみが現職参議ではない例外の存在であったこと、大久保帰国後に卿と参議を兼務させる方針を改めて打ち出していることなど、必ずしも合理性が無い訳ではない）ことも、国外にいて情報入手が限られていた大久保・木戸の不信感を高めたのである。