was a Japanese bureaucrat and businessman.

Biography

He was born in Ashiya in Hyogo Prefecture and studied at

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refounded ...

. During the

Occupation Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...

he was a member of

Shigeru Yoshida (22 September 1878 – 20 October 1967) was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1946 to 1947 and from 1948 to 1954. Yoshida was one of the longest-serving Japanese prime ministers, and is the third-long ...

's government. He is particularly remembered in Japan for an incident in Christmas 1945 where he delivered a present from

Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

Emperor of Japan The Emperor of Japan is the monarch and the head of the Imperial House of Japan, Imperial Family of Japan. Under the Constitution of Japan, he is defined as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, and his positio ...

to General

Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...

. When MacArthur told him to place it on the floor, Shirasu demanded a table to show respect. In 2009 he was the subject of an NHK drama. His wife

Masako Shirasu Masako Shirasu (白洲正子, Shirasu Masako) (January 7, 1910 – December 26, 1998) was a Japanese author and collector of fine arts. Her husband was the diplomat Jirō Shirasu. Biography Shirasu was born in 1910 in the Nagatachō district of ...

was a collector and expert of fine Japanese art, on which she published a number of books. Their house ''

Buaisō is the former home of post-war Japanese bureaucrat Jirō Shirasu and his wife Masako Shirasu, located in Machida, Tokyo, to the west of downtown Tokyo. The name was derived from an amalgamation of ''kanji'' for the former provinces of Musashi an ...

'' became a museum.

References

External links

Old Shirasu Residence "Buaiso"

白洲次郎・正子が終の棲家に選んだ幕末期の養蚕農家〈The house of ericulture farmer in the end of Edo period that Jiro and Masako Shirasu chose as their final residence〉
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shirasu, Jiro 1902 births 1985 deaths 20th-century Japanese businesspeople 20th-century Japanese politicians People from Hyōgo Prefecture Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge