Okazaki Kunisuke

Okazaki Kunisuke
Bronze bust of Okazaki Kunisuke in Wakayama City, Japan
Born	April 12, 1854(1854-04-12) Wakayama, Japan
Died	July 22, 1936(1936-07-22) (aged 82)
Nationality	Japan
Occupation	Politician

In this Japanese name, the family name is "Okazaki".

Okazaki Kunisuke (岡崎邦輔^?, April 12, 1854 – July 22, 1936) was a politician and cabinet minister in the late Meiji and Taishō period Empire of Japan.

Biography

Okazaki was born as the younger son in a samurai class family in Wakayama Domain, what is now Wakayama Prefecture. His father was a karō with revenues of 400 koku as a direct retainer of the Kiishū Tokugawa family, and he was the first cousin of Mutsu Munemitsu.

After the Meiji Restoration, at the invitation of Mutsu Munemitsu, Okazaki left Wakayama for Tokyo in 1873. When Mutsu was appointed as ambassador to the United States, Okazaki accompanied him as his secretary and enrolled in the University of Michigan, where he became acquainted with Minakata Kumagusu. Okazaki returned to Japan in 1890, and was elected to the lower house of the Diet of Japan in the Japanese general election, 1890. It marked the start of his political career, and he was subsequently to be reelected to the House of Representatives for ten consecutive times. In 1897, he became a member of the Jiyūtō political party. After Mutsu’s death, he became associated with another of Mutsu’s protégés, Hoshi Toru, and supported the Ōkuma Shigenobu administration, and the formation of the Rikken Seiyūkai party.

In 1900, Okazaki was chosen to become Minister of Communications in the 4th Itō Hirobumi cabinet. For the next twenty years, he continued to play an active, behind-the-scenes role in Japanese party politics, reemerging into the spotlight as Minister of Agriculture and Commerce under the Katō Takaaki administration in 1925. In 1928, he was appointed to the House of Peers.

References

• Sims, Richard (2001). Japanese Political History Since the Meiji Renovation 1868-2000. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0312239157. 
• Schencking, J. Charles (2005). Making Waves: Politics, Propaganda, And The Emergence Of The Imperial Japanese Navy, 1868-1922. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804749779. 
• Ozaki, Yukio. (2001). The Autobiography of Ozaki Yukio: The Struggle for Constitutional Government in Japan. [Translated by Fujiko Hara]. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691050953

Persondata
Name	Okazaki, Junisuke
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	April 12, 1854
Place of birth	Wakayama, Japan
Date of death	July 22, 1936
Place of death