Background
Kaoru Inoue was born on 16 Jabuary 1835 in the fief of Choshu and in his youth went by the name Monta.
井上 馨
Kaoru Inoue was born on 16 Jabuary 1835 in the fief of Choshu and in his youth went by the name Monta.
He studied Dutch learning, English, and Western style gunnery and became an enthusiastic supporter of the sonno-joi movement, which advocated restoration of power to the emperor and the expulsion of the foreign traders, and in 1862 participated in the attack and burning of the British legation at Shinagawa in Edo.
In 1863, on orders from his fief, he joined Ito Hirobuini in escaping from the country in secret and journeying to England. During his period of study in London, he became acutely aware of the impracticability of attempts to expel the foreigners from Japan and in 1864, upon receiving news that the ships of four foreign nations had been fired upon in the Shimonoscki Straits by the Choshu forces, he hastened back to Japan and did his best to arrange a peaceful settlement to the affair. Later, he was attacked and wounded by members of the opposing faction in his fief, but he recovered and joined Takasugi Shinsaku in the movement to overthrow the shogunate.
With the establishment of the Meiji government in 1868, he became a councilor and officer in charge of foreign affairs. In 1871 he was made chief assistant of finance and later minister of finance, playing an active role in the organization of the new government and the handling of its foreign and fiscal affairs. But because of factional struggles within the government, he retired from public life in 1873 and devoted his energies to various business enterprises. As a result of the movement to quiet criticisms against the government (the outcome of a meeting of influential statesmen known as the Osaka Conference), he returned to political life in 1875, becoming a member of the Genroin (Senate). In 1876 he was made a vice-envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary and sent to Korea with the chief envoy Kuroda Kiyotaka to settle difficulties that had arisen between the two countries as a result of the Kanghwa Incident the previous year; the outcome was the trade agreement known as the Kanghwa Treaty.
After returning to Japan, he set off for a visit to Europe to study fiscal and economic matters. On his return to Japan in 1878 he became a councilor of state and minister of public works and the following year was transferred to the post of minister of foreign affairs. In 1884 he went once more to Korea as an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to settle difficulties arising out of the Second Seoul Incident, negotiating and signing the Seoul Treaty the following year. The same year he became minister of foreign affairs in the first Ito cabinet and devoted all his efforts to seeking revision of Japan’s treaties with foreign powers, but because of his policies for thoroughgoing Westernization, he aroused the opposition of Minister of Agriculture and Commerce Tani Kanjo and the French legal advisor to the government Gustave Emile Boissonade and others and was forced to retire.
In 1888 he became minister of agriculture and commerce in the Kuroda cabinet and in 1892 became minister of home affairs in the second Ito cabinet. With the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, because of his thorough knowledge of Korean affairs, he was dispatched to Korea once more as an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary. He devoted his energies to carrying out reforms in the Korean government. In 1898 he became minister of finance in the third Ito cabinet, and later a genro (personal counselor) to the throne. In 1902 he supported Ito in urging the government to draw up an entente cor diale with Russia, but these efforts were brought to nothing with the signing of the Anglo-Japanese alliance in the same year. He was also active in the forming of the first, second, and third Katsura cabinets and the Okuma cabinet. Throughout his life he remained a staunch friend and supporter of Ito Hirobumi.
He held the title of marquis.