Hideki Tōjō (Kyūjitai: 東條 英機; Shinjitai: 東条 英機;  Tōjō Hideki (help·info)) (30 December 1884 – 23 December 1948) was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), the leader of the Taisei Yokusankai, and the 40th Prime Minister of Japan during most of World War II, from 17 October 1941 to 22 July 1944. As Prime Minister, he was directly responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor, which led to the war between Japan and the United States, although planning for it had begun before he entered office. After the end of the war, Tōjō was arrested, sentenced to death for Japanese war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and was hanged on 23 December 1948.

Hideki Tōjō was born in the Kōjimachi district of Tokyo on 30 December 1884 as the third son of Hidenori Tōjō, a lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army. He would later change his given name from the Chinese-inspired "Eiki" to the traditionally more Japanese "Hideki" (see on'yomi). In 1899, Tōjō entered the Army Cadet School. When he graduated from the Japanese Military Academy (ranked 10th of 363 cadets^{[citation needed]}) in March 1905 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the infantry of the IJA. In 1909, he married Katsuko Ito, with whom he would have three sons and four daughters. By 1928, he had become the bureau chief of the Japanese Army, and was shortly thereafter promoted to colonel. He began to take an interest in militarist politics during his command of the 1st Infantry Regiment.