Background
Mineichirō Adachi was born on 29 July 1869 in Yamagata Prefecture.
Mineichirō Adachi was born on 29 July 1869 in Yamagata Prefecture.
In 1892 he graduated from the law course of Tokyo Imperial University and entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 1905 he accompanied the Japanese ambassador plenipotentiary Komura to the conference at Portsmouth, where the treaty concluding the Russo-Japanese War was drawn up and signed. He served as minister to Mexico from 1913 to 1916, as minister to Belgium in 1917, as ambassador to the same from 1921 to 1927, and as ambassador to France from 1927 to 1930. He also participated in the drawing up of the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact of 1928. In addition, he served as Japan’s representative to the League of Nations from the time of its founding in 1919, attending the first ten general meetings and in his eloquent French explaining Japan’s position before the other delegates.
In 1930 he was elected a judge to the Permanent Court of International Justice with the highest number of votes and was selected for the position of presiding judge. When he died of illness in Amsterdam in 1934, he was given a state funeral by the Dutch government in recognition of his lifelong efforts for the attainment of international peace. In addition to his activities on the diplomatic scene, he was renowned as an authority on international law.
In 1921 he became an associate of the Institut de Droit International, and in 1925 a member of the Imperial Academy of Japan. He was also a member of the Belgian Academy and an honorary professor of the University of Louvain.