was a Japanese economist.

Early life and education

Ōuchi was born on August 29, 1888 in what is now Minaminawaji, Hyogo, Japan. After graduating from schools in Hyogo and

Kumamoto is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2. had a population of 1,461,000, ...

, and earned a degree from

Tokyo Imperial University , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

Career

Ōuchi briefly worked for the

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the finance. Lists of current ministries of finance Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Finance and Ec ...

, then became a professor in the university's newly created economics department, where he was a member of a

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

study group. Ōuchi became the editor of the department's new research journal, and published an article that

Morito Tatsuo was a Japanese economist. He served as the Minister of Education under Prime Minister Tetsu Katayama, and was the first president of Hiroshima University. Early life and education Morito was born in what is now Fukuyama, Hiroshima, Japan on ...

had submitted. The article was a discussion of

Peter Kropotkin Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (; russian: link=no, Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин ; 9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist, socialist, revolutionary, historian, scientist, philosopher, and activis ...

's theories and a criticism of Japan's political systems. The

Home Ministry An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

made them stop distributing the journal on December 27, 1919, on the grounds that Morito's article advocated for

anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessa ...

. Morito refused to apologize for writing the article, so the economics department faculty voted to suspend both Morito and Ōuchi in January 1920 and the Home Ministry took them to court. Despite protests from hundreds of university students, Ōuchi was sentenced to a year of

probation Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration. In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incarceration), such ...

. Morito was sentenced to three months in jail. During this period, Ōuchi studied abroad in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. In 1923, a few years after Ōuchi returned to the university, he was promoted to full professor. However, conflict between Marxist and anti-Marxist faculty members within the department flared up after the

March 15 incident The was a crackdown on socialists and communists by the Japanese government in 1928. Among those who were arrested in the incident was the Marxist economist Kawakami Hajime. Background Although the Japan Communist Party had been outlawed and for ...

. After the incident, some Marxist members of the economics department were pressured to resign. After the

Popular Front Incident The refers to the Imperial Japanese government's suppression of a perceived threat from the political left after the fall of Nanjing during the Shōwa period. During the incident, approximately 400 people were arrested by the authorities between ...

, Ōuchi and fellow economists , and were arrested in February 1939. They were suspended from teaching until the trials finished. Ōuchi was found to be innocent, and returned to the university in 1945. Ōuchi became the president of

Hosei University is a private university based in Tokyo, Japan. The university originated in a school of law, Tōkyō Hōgakusha (, i.e. Tokyo association of law), established in 1880, and the following year renamed Tōkyō Hōgakkō (, i.e. Tokyo school of law ...

in 1950. He became the president of the

Japan Statistical Society The Japan Statistical Society (Nihon Tokei Gakkai) ...

in 1953. In 1959, Ōuchi left Hosei University and became president of the . He was awarded the

Order of the Sacred Treasure The is a Japanese order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six classes, the lowest ...

, first class, in 1965. He died on May 1, 1980.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ōuchi, Hyōei 1888 births 1980 deaths University of Tokyo alumni University of Tokyo faculty Japanese economists