Kaneko Kentaro

nihongo|Count Kaneko Kentaro|金子堅太郎|Kaneko Kentarō|4 February, 1853 - 16 May 1942 was a statesman and diplomat in Meiji period Japan.

Early life

Kaneko was born into a "samurai" family of Fukuoka Domain (Chikuzen Province's Sawara district, present-day Chūō-ku, Fukuoka). He was selected to be a student member of the Iwakura Mission, and was left behind in the United States to study at Harvard University while the rest of the mission continued on to Europe and around the world back to Japan. While at Harvard, Kaneko shared lodgings with fellow Japanese student Komura Jutaro. He also developed a wide circle of contacts in America, ranging from lawyers, scientists, journalists and industrialists.

While at Harvard, Kaneko made a telephone call to fellow exchange student Itō Junji. This was the first instance of a telephone conversation between two Japanese. [Osatake, IEEE Transactions Vol 20 Issue 4, pp.687-688]

After graduation from Harvard in 1878, Kaneko returned to Japan as a lecturer at Tokyo Imperial University.

Government career

In 1880, Kaneko was appointed as a secretary in the "Genrōin," and in 1884 had joined the Office for Investigation of Institutions, the body organized by the "Genrōin" to study the constitutions of various western nations with the aim of creating a constitution for Japan.

He worked closely with Ito Hirobumi, Inoue Kowashi and Ito Miyoji, and became personal secretary to Ito Hirobumi when the latter became first Prime Minister of Japan.

Kaneko was appointed to the House of Peers in 1890, and became Vice Minister, then Minister of Agriculture and Commerce in 1898 in the third Itō administration. He was awarded an honorary doctorate (LL.D.) by Harvard in 1899 for his work on the Meiji Constitution.

In 1900 he became Minister of Justice under the fourth Itō administration and was made baron ("danshaku"). He was further ennobled with the title of "shishaku" (viscount) in the "kazoku" peerage system in 1907.

Russo-Japanese War

In 1904, at the personal request of Itō Hirobumi, Kaneko was sent as special envoy to the United States. While in the United States, he revived contacts with Theodore Roosevelt, with whom he had been contemporaneously at Harvard (though they did not meet until later, introduced by William Sturgis Bigelow in 1889), and requested that Roosevelt help Japan mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War. Roosevelt agreed, and presided over the subsequent Treaty of Portsmouth.

Later career

From 1906, Kaneko served as a member of the Privy Council.

In his later years he was engaged in the compilation a history of the Imperial family and as served as secretary general of the association for compiling historical materials about the Meiji Restoration. He was elevated to "hakushaku" (count) in 1930.

ee also

* Suematsu Kencho - sent on the same mission as Kaneko in 1904 but to Europe

References and Further Reading

*Duus, Peter. "The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895-1910 (Twentieth-Century Japan - the Emergence of a World Power, 4)." University of California Press (1998). ISBN 0-520-21361-0.
* Hane, Mikiso. "Modern Japan: A Historical Survey". Westview Press (2001). ISBN 0-8133-3756-9
* Jansen, Marius B. "The Making of Modern Japan". Belknap Press; New Ed edition (October 15, 2002). ISBN 0-674-00991-6
* Kaneko, Kentaro, "A sketch of the history of the constitution of Japan". Unwin Brothers (1889) ASIN: B00086SR4M
* Morris, Edmund. "Theodore Rex". Modern Library; Reprint edition (2002). ISBN 0-8129-6600-7
* Matsumura, Masayoshi. "Nichi-Ro senso to Kaneko Kentaro: Koho gaiko no kenkyu". Shinyudo. ISBN 4-88033-010-8 (Japanese)
* Osatake, T. "Communications, IEEE Transactions on (legacy, pre - 1988) Volume 20, Issue 4," Aug 1972 Page(s): 687 - 688

External links

* [http://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/e/datas/57.html?c=0 National Diet Library Photo & Bio]
* [http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/02.26/11-japan.html History of Japanese at Harvard]

Notes