(In this Japanese name, the family name is Itō.) Prince Itō Hirobumi (伊藤 博文, October 16, 1841 – October 26, 1909, born Hayashi Risuke and also known as Hirofumi, Hakubun and briefly during his youth Itō Shunsuke) was a Japanese statesman and genrō. A London-educated samurai of the Chōshū Domain and an influential figure in the early Meiji Restoration government, he chaired the bureau which drafted the Meiji Constitution in the 1880s. Looking to the West for legal inspiration, Itō rejected the United States Constitution as too liberal and the Spanish Restoration as too despotic before ultimately drawing on the British and German models, especially the Prussian Constitution of 1850. Dissatisfied with the prominent role of Christianity in European legal traditions, he substituted references to the more traditionally Japanese concept of kokutai or "national polity", which became the constitutional justification for imperial authority. In 1885 he became Japan's first Prime Minister, an office his constitutional bureau had introduced. He went on to hold the position four times, and wielded considerable power even out of office as the occasional head of Emperor Meiji's Privy Council. A monarchist, Itō favoured a large, bureaucratic government and opposed the formation of political parties. His third government was ended by the consolidation of the opposition into the Kenseitō party in 1898, prompting him to found the Rikken Seiyūkai in response. He resigned his fourth and final ministry in 1901 after growing weary of party politics, but served as head of the Privy Council twice more before his death. Itō's foreign policy was ambitious. He strengthened diplomatic ties with Western powers including Germany, the United States and especially the United Kingdom. In Asia he oversaw the First Sino-Japanese War and negotiated Chinese surrender on terms aggressively favourable to Japan, including the annexation of Taiwan and the release of Korea from the tribute system. Itō sought to avoid a Russo-Japanese War through the policy of Man-Kan kōkan – surrendering Manchuria to the Russian sphere of influence in exchange for the acceptance of Japanese hegemony in Korea. A diplomatic tour of the United States and Europe brought him to Saint Petersburg in November 1901, where he was unable to find compromise on this matter with Russian authorities. Soon the government of Katsura Tarō elected to abandon the pursuit of Man-Kan kōkan, and tensions with Russia continued to escalate towards war. The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905 made Itō the first Japanese Resident-General of Korea. He supported the sovereignty of the indigenous Joseon monarchy as a protectorate under Japan, and in 1909 was forced to resign his position by the increasingly powerful Imperial Japanese Army, which instead favoured the total annexation of Korea. Four months later, Itō was assassinated by Korean nationalist An Jung-geun in Manchuria. His death accelerated the annexation both he and his assassin had opposed; the process was formalised by another treaty the following year. Through his daughter Ikuko, Itō was the father-in-law of politician, intellectual and author Suematsu Kenchō.

Read full article on Wikipedia · CC-BY-SA