Background
Kimimasa Yuri was born on November 11, 1829 in Fukui, Japan.
公正 由利
entrepreneur politician statesman
Kimimasa Yuri was born on November 11, 1829 in Fukui, Japan.
Kimimasa Yuri studied under the Confucian scholar Yokoi Shonan. He worked towards the financial reform and modernizing Fukui domain and received preferential treatment from daimyō Matsudaira Yoshinaga due to his great ability.
Kimimasa Yuri joined the new Meiji government as a san'yo (senior councillor), and took charge of the financial and monetary policy of the new government. Together with Fukuoka Takachika, he was the principal author of the Charter Oath.
Kimimasa Yuri was involved in the issuance of Japan's first national paper banknotes in 1868. In 1871, he became the fourth governor of Tokyo. Kimimasa Yuri left government the following year, but was selected as one of the members of the Iwakura Mission on its around-the-world voyage to the United States and Europe. After his return to Japan, he joined Itagaki Taisuke in petitioning for a representative national assembly.
In 1875, he was appointed to the Genroin. In 1887 he was elevated to the rank of shishaku (viscount) in the kazoku peerage system. He was nominated to serve in the House of Peers of the Diet of Japan in 1890.
In 1891, Yuri quit government service, moved to Kyoto, and founded the Yurin Seimeihoken K.K., one of Japan's first life insurance companies. The company later merged with Meiji Seimei, the predecessor to modern Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company.