Japanese politician
Arai Kentarō
Kentarō Arai (left) and Rentarō Mizuno
Born (1863-11-25 ) November 25, 1863Died January 29, 1938(1938-01-29) (aged 75)Tokyo, Japan
Nationality Japanese Occupations Politician Cabinet minister
Arai Kentarō (荒井賢太郎 , 25 November 1863 – 29 January 1938) was a politician and cabinet minister in the pre-war Empire of Japan .
Biography
Kentaro Arai in the 1920s
Arai was a native of Niigata Prefecture . After graduating from Niigata University , he worked for a period as an elementary school teacher. Subsequently, relocating to Tokyo , he graduated from the law school of Tokyo Imperial University , specializing in French law . His classmates included the future Prime Minister of Japan , Wakatsuki Reijirō and President of the Permanent Court of International Justice Mineichirō Adachi . In 1892, he accepted a post in the Ministry of Finance , rising to head the Budget Bureau. During this period, he also served as a lecturer at the predecessor to Hosei University .
In 1907, Arai was sent to Korea , which had recently become a protectorate of Japan, as a bureaucrat under the Japanese Resident-General of Korea . Following the annexation of Korea in 1910, Arai was assigned to head the Treasury Bureau under the Governor-General of Korea , a post he held to 1917.
In May 1917, Arai was recalled to Japan, and was appointed to a seat in the Upper House of the Diet of Japan . In 1922, he was asked to become Minister of Agriculture & Commerce under the Katō Tomosaburō administration.
Arai resigned his seat in the House of Peers in October 1926 and was appointed to the Privy Council . He became Vice-President of the Privy Council in 1936, and died in office in 1938.
References
Duus, Peter. The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895–1910 (Twentieth-Century Japan - the Emergence of a World Power . University of California Press (1998). ISBN 0-520-21361-0 .