22 Facts About Takahashi Korekiyo

Viscount Takahashi Korekiyo was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1921 to 1922 and Minister of Finance when he was assassinated.

Takahashi Korekiyo was a member of the House of Peers and head of the Bank of Japan.

Takahashi Korekiyo's policies are credited for pulling Japan out of the Depression, but led to soaring inflation following his assassination, as Takahashi Korekiyo's successors became highly reluctant to cut off funding to the government.

Takahashi Korekiyo was born in Edo, while Japan was still under the Tokugawa shogunate.

Takahashi Korekiyo was the illegitimate son of a court painter in residence at Edo Castle, and adopted as the son of Takahashi Kakuji, a low-ranking samurai in the service of the Date daimyo of Sendai Domain.

Takahashi Korekiyo studied the English language and American culture in a private school run by the missionary James Hepburn.

Takahashi Korekiyo later became the first master of the Kyoryu Gakko high school in Tokyo, and at the same time worked as a low-ranking bureaucrat in the Ministry of Education, and then in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce.

Takahashi Korekiyo was appointed as the first chief of the Bureau of Patents, a department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, and helped organized the patent system in Japan.

Takahashi Korekiyo became an employee of the Bank of Japan in 1892, and his talents were soon recognized, as he rose to become vice-president in 1898.

Takahashi Korekiyo met personally with American financier Jacob Schiff, who floated half of Japan's loans in the US Takahashi Korekiyo raised loans from the Rothschild family in Britain.

Takahashi Korekiyo was named president of the Yokohama Specie Bank in 1906.

Takahashi Korekiyo was made a baron under the kazoku peerage system in 1907.

Takahashi Korekiyo was Governor of the Bank of Japan from 1 June 1911, through 20 February 1913.

In 1913, Takahashi Korekiyo was appointed Minister of Finance by Prime Minister Yamamoto Gonnohyoe and then joined the Rikken Seiyukai political party.

Takahashi Korekiyo was re-appointed by Prime Minister Hara Takashi in 1918.

Takahashi Korekiyo was the second Christian Prime Minister in Japanese history.

Takahashi Korekiyo's term lasted less than seven months, primarily due to his inability as an outsider to control the factions in his party, and his lack of a power base in the party.

Takahashi Korekiyo resigned his seat in the House of Peers in 1924, and was elected to a seat in the Lower House of the Diet of Japan in the 1924 General Election.

When Kato Takaaki became the prime minister and set up a coalition cabinet in 1924, Takahashi Korekiyo accepted the post of Minister of Agriculture and Commerce.

Takahashi Korekiyo divided the department into the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Takahashi Korekiyo served as Finance Minister under the administrations of Tanaka Giichi, Inukai Tsuyoshi, Saito Makoto and Keisuke Okada.

Takahashi Korekiyo's grave is at the Tama Reien Cemetery in Fuchu, Tokyo.