11 Facts About Yoriyasu Arima

Yoriyasu Arima was a Japanese politician before and during World War II.

Yoriyasu Arima's wife was the daughter of Prince Takeda Tsunehisa.

Yoriyasu Arima studied agricultural science at the Tokyo Imperial University, and later became a professor there.

Yoriyasu Arima read Karl Marx and Max Stirner, and other radical philosophers, and became attracted to the agrarian movement and radical political ideas.

Yoriyasu Arima founded the Nihon Nomin Kumiai together with Kagawa Toyohiko.

Yoriyasu Arima was active in various social programmes, including the establishment and support of night school, women's education, farmers'srights, and the rights of the burakumin, and was chairman of a cultural association aimed at improving education and cultural awareness in rural areas.

Yoriyasu Arima was elected to the House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan in 1924 under the Rikken Seiyukai party.

Yoriyasu Arima was a close personal friend of Fumimaro Konoe, and when Konoe became Prime Minister of Japan in 1937, Yoriyasu Arima was requested to serve as his Minister of Agriculture.

Yoriyasu Arima participated in Konoe's Showa Studies Society "Brain trust".

In 1936, Yoriyasu Arima helped organize the Tokyo Senators baseball team, and built a baseball stadium at the site where the present Korakuen Stadium in Tokyo is located.

In 1940, Yoriyasu Arima became head of the Taisei Yokusankai organization, but resigned after five months due to opposition from the militarist faction in the government.