Shigeru Yoshida

About the Shigeru Yoshida

Shigeru Yoshidawas a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1946 to 1947 and from 1948 to 1954, serving through most of the American occupation following the Pacific War. He played a significant part in determining the course for post-war Japan by forging a strong relationship with the United States and pursuing economic recovery.

Born to a former samurai family, Yoshida joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a young man. After spending most of his career as a diplomat in China, he served from 1928 to 1930 as vice minister of foreign affairs under the Giichi Tanaka Cabinet and the Hamaguchi Cabinet. He was then ambassador to Italy until 1932, after which he had no posting for several years. Yoshida was considered for foreign minister in the cabinet of Koki Hirota, but was opposed by the Army. Instead he was appointed ambassador to Britain, serving from 1936 to 1938. Yoshida tried to deescalate tensions with Britain and the United States before the outbreak of the Pacific War. During the war he was in retirement, but was nevertheless involved in attempts to seek peace with the Allied powers.

Under the American occupation after the war, Yoshida served as foreign minister in the Higashikuni Cabinet and the Shidehara Cabinet. Yoshida became prime minister in 1946, after Ichiro Hatoyama was purged by the occupation on the verge of becoming prime minister and endorsed Yoshida as his replacement. Yoshida oversaw the adoption of the Constitution of Japan before losing office after the election of 1947. He returned to the premiership in 1948. He negotiated the Treaty of San Francisco, which ended the occupation and saw the restoration of sovereignty to Japan. Yoshida pursued a strategy of concentrating on economic reconstruction while relying on an alliance with the United States for defense, a strategy known as the Yoshida Doctrine. The last years of his premiership were marked by conflict with Ichiro Hatoyama, who had been depurged. This culminated in Yoshida being ousted and replaced by Hatoyama in 1954.

Yoshida’s legacy continued to play an important part in Japanese political life, particularly through his two proteges, Hayato Ikeda and Eisaku Sato, who served a prime ministers from 1960 to 1964 and 1964 to 1972 respectively. Yoshida died in 1967 and received a state funeral. His grandson, Taro Aso, served as prime minister from 2008 to 2009.