Background
Shidehara Kijuro was born on September 13, 1872 in Osaka, Japan. He was a younger brother of Hiroshi.
幣原 喜重郎
Shidehara Kijuro was born on September 13, 1872 in Osaka, Japan. He was a younger brother of Hiroshi.
Shidehara attended Tokyo Imperial University, and graduated from the Faculty of Law, where he had studied under Hozumi Nobushige.
After graduation, he found a position within the Foreign Ministry and was sent as a consul to Chemulpo in Korea in 1896. He subsequently served in the Japanese embassy in London, Antwerp, and Washington D.C. and as ambassador to the Netherlands, returning to Japan in 1915.
In 1915, Shidehara was appointed Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and continued in this position during five consecutive administrations.
In 1919, he was named ambassador to the United States and was Japan's leading negotiator during the Washington Naval Conference. His negotiations led to the return of Shandong Province to China. However, while he was ambassador, the United States enacted discriminatory immigration laws against Japanese, which created much ill will in Japan.
Appointed Foreign Minister in the Cabinet of Takaaki Kato (1924; and assumed the portfolio again (1929).
His foreign policy was denounced by the militarists of the time as being lukewarm. While Prime Minister Osachi Hamaguchi was recuperating from his wounds inflicted by a would-be assassin, he was Prime Minister ad interim. Was nominated a member of the House of Peers. He was in retirement during the war years because of his pro-Anglo-American leanings.
After the war, he was Prime Minister (1945-1946) and then Speaker of the House of Representatives.
In 1903 he married Masako Iwasaki, who came from the family that founded the Mitsubishi zaibatsu or group of companies.