Kiyoura Keigo

Count Kiyoura Keigo (清浦 奎吾, 14 February 1850 – 5 November 1942) was a Japanese politician. He was the 23rd Prime Minister of Japan from 7 January 1924 to 11 June 1924, during the period which historians have called the “Taisho Democracy”.

Early life

Kiyoura was born with the name Fujaku in Kamoto-gun, Higo Province, (part of present-day Yamaga, Kumamoto), as the fifth son of a Buddhist priest named Ōkubo Ryoshi. He studied at the private school of Hirose Tanso from 1865 to 1871. During this time, he befriended Governor Nomura Morihide and took up the name "Kiyoura Keigo."

Political career

Nomura was appointed governor of Saitama Prefecture in 1873 and appointed Kiyoura to a junior-grade civil service position there.

In 1876, at the age of twenty-six, Kiyoura joined the Ministry of Justice, and served as a prosecutor and helping draft Japan’s first modern Criminal procedures laws. In 1884 he caught the attention of Yamagata Aritomo who appointed him head of the police forces in Japan, despite his relative youth of 34. Kiyoura went on to serve as Vice Minister of Justice, and Minister of Justice and while at the Ministry of Justice, he helped draft the Peace Preservation Law of 1887.