Matsuda Masahisa

Matsuda Masahisa

Matsuda Masahisa ( Japanese 松田 正 久 ; born May 17, 1845 in the eastern part of Hizen Province (today: Saga Prefecture ); died March 4, 1914 ) was a Japanese politician during the Meiji period .

life and work

Matsuda Masahisa, a samurai of the Ogi-han , a branch of Saga in the province of Hizen, was sent to France by the army , but after returning he worked from 1881 to 1882 for the "Liberal Newspaper of the East" ( 東洋 自由 新聞 , Tōyō jiyū shimbun ). He was already active in the people's rights movement in the 1870s and was elected to the newly founded Reichstag in the first parliamentary election in 1890 for the Constitutional Liberal Party (Rikken Jiyūtō) in his home prefecture Saga . In 1898 he became finance minister in the 1st Ōkuma cabinet . After the formation of the Rikken Seiyūkai in 1900, Matsuda led the Kyūshū faction and was, especially under the presidency of Saionji, together with Hara Takashi , the most influential figure in the party.

As President of the House of Representatives in 1904, as Minister of Culture in the 4th Itō Cabinet in 1908 and as Minister of Justice in Cabinet Saionji I (1906 to 1908), Cabinet Saionji II (1911 to 1912), Cabinet Yamamoto I (1913), he exerted a great influence.

Matsuda remained the most important figure in the early popular rights movement during this period and was far more popular than Hara, who then became president of the Seiyūkai after Matsuda's death.

literature

• Hunter, Janet: Matsuda Masahisa . In: Concise Dictionary of Modern Japanese History. Kodansha International, 1984. ISBN 4-7700-1193-8 .

Web links

Commons : Matsuda Masahisa  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Matsuda is the family name, Masahisa the first name.