Background
Takaaki Katō was born on January 25, 1860 to a provincial samurai family in Owari in 1860.
加藤 高明
Takaaki Katō was born on January 25, 1860 to a provincial samurai family in Owari in 1860.
He completed his training as a lawyer at Tokyo Imperial University in 1881 where he ranked first in his class.
Kato then took an unusual step: he joined the Mitsubishi Company rather than follow the traditional career pattern of promising university graduates who entered the government at once. He rose quickly. The future Anglophile statesman spent two years working in London and Liverpool, then returned to Japan to marry the daughter of Mitsubishi's director. In 1886 Kato became private secretary to the minister of foreign affairs. It was the start of a brilliant political career. By 1895 the young lawyer was Japan’s minister to Great Britain, a post
he held until 1899. He strongly favored a diplomatic link with the British; and, unlike the passive Japanese diplomat typical for that time, he urged his own policy on his home government. Elevated to the rank of foreign minister in 1900, Kato led the opposition to Russian expansionism and set the stage for the Anglo-Japanese alliance of 1902.
Kato returned to Britain as Japan's minister in 1909. His tour was marked by his successful support for the renewal, in 1911, of the Anglo-Japanese alliance. Before returning home two years later, he held informal discussions with Sir Edward Grey on Japan's long-range interests in China. Grey was noncommittal, but he seemed to indicate Britain's approval for Japanese expansion in areas such as southern Manchuria.
The outbreak of World War I found Kato back in the post of foreign minister. German naval strength in the Far East impelled London to call on Japan for a limited degree of military aid: the British wanted the Japanese navy to help in hunting down German commerce raiders. Kato argued for wider Japanese participation. He looked to the seizure of German holdings in China's Kiaochow province; German islands in the Pacific were also tempting and vulnerable. On August 7 Kato passed his first test when the Japanese cabinet agreed to enter the war. Japanese military circles likewise assented. On August 8 Kato won over the group of genro ("elder statesmen") who played a crucial role in approving major policies. Thus, in less than two days of frantic discussion, the energetic foreign minister brought Japan into the war. The British, much to their surprise and discomfort, found themselves saddled with an ambitious Japanese ally out to use the European war as occasion for a burst of expansion. Grey's efforts to place clear geographic limits on Japanese military activities were firmly turned aside.
Kato then took an unusual step: he joined the Mitsubishi Company rather than follow the traditional career pattern of promising university graduates who entered the government at once. He rose quickly. The future Anglophile statesman spent two years working in London and Liverpool, then returned to Japan to marry the daughter of Mitsubishi's director. In 1886 Kato became private secretary to the minister of foreign affairs. It was the start of a brilliant political career. By 1895 the young lawyer was Japan’s minister to Great Britain, a post he held until 1899. He strongly favored a diplomatic link with the British; and, unlike the passive Japanese diplomat typical for that time, he urged his own policy on his home government. Elevated to the rank of foreign minister in 1900, Kato led the opposition to Russian expansionism and set the stage for the Anglo-Japanese alliance of 1902.
Kato returned to Britain as Japan's minister in 1909. His tour was marked by his successful support for the renewal, in 1911, of the Anglo-Japanese alliance. Before returning home two years later, he held informal discussions with Sir Edward Grey on Japan's long-range interests in China. Grey was noncommittal, but he seemed to indicate Britain's approval for Japanese expansion in areas such as southern Manchuria.
The outbreak of World War I found Kato back in the post of foreign minister. German naval strength in the Far East impelled London to call on Japan for a limited degree of military aid: the British wanted the Japanese navy to help in hunting down German commerce raiders. Kato argued for wider Japanese participation. He looked to the seizure of German holdings in China's Kiaochow province; German islands in the Pacific were also tempting and vulnerable. On August 7 Kato passed his first test when the Japanese cabinet agreed to enter the war. Japanese military circles likewise assented. On August 8 Kato won over the group of genro ("elder statesmen") who played a crucial role in approving major policies. Thus, in less than two days of frantic discussion, the energetic foreign minister brought Japan into the war. The British, much to their surprise and discomfort, found themselves saddled with an ambitious Japanese ally out to use the European war as occasion for a burst of expansion. Grey's efforts to place clear geographic limits on Japanese military activities were firmly turned aside.
When the so-called first national Movement to Protect the Constitution brought about the downfall of the Katsura cabinet in 1913, Kato became a member of the Rikken Doshikai, a political party formed by Katsura to combat his opponents, and after Katsura’s death became president of the party.
In 1916 he formed a political party known as the Kenscikai, but remained isolated from the mainstream of political developments. In 1924 he and his followers joined with two other political parties, the Seiyükai and the Kaku- shintö, in carrying out what came to be known as the second Constitution Protection Movement. As a result, Katö succeeded in overthrowing the Kiyoura cabinet and forming a cabinet made up of members from the Seiyükai, the Kakushinto, and the Kenseikai. The Katö cabinet in 1925 enacted a law establishing universal male suffrage, but at the same time promulgated the so-called Peace Preservation Law, which allowed the government to take repressive measures against those whose political view's it regarded as dangerous.
He was married Iwasaki’s eldest daughter