was a British-Japanese international lawyer, diplomat, legal adviser of the Japanese Ambassador to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, member of

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

and founder of

Chuo University , commonly referred to as or , is a private flagship research university in Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1885 as Igirisu Hōritsu Gakkō (the English Law School), Chuo is one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions in the country. The univer ...

Biography

His first name Rokuichiro''' was given to him because his father was 61 years when he was born, the ''roku-ju-ichi'' means 61 in Japanese. He graduated in law school later before his fellow Chuo University founders, he also graduated from

University of Tokyo , 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 ...

in 1879 in the Law School after his talent was recognized by the founder of

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...

Yataro Iwasaki, took him to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

there he started

in 1881 to 1883 during the year entrance fees were £50 in addition, he was asked to pay £100 which would be reimbursed when he had become barrister. This £100 was used for grant for employment as barrister in Inns of Court, after he was required to attend four schools semester in one year although the schooling term consists of dinner at the cafeteria of Inns Court and listening to the reading of books on a statutory law at either times of the dinners and active debate regarding legal issues and current events. He passed the required school terms written oral examination which is held in

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

cafeteria, the largest of the four schools. He was

called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

at Middle Temple in 1883 and moved back to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, he was one of the first Japanese to become a barrister in England. He retired from the field of education and began to practice law. Masujima worked as a public relations lawyer, mainly dealing with public relations litigation cases and corporate law. His achievements and fame led to him being given honorary membership of the

Canadian Bar Association The Canadian Bar Association (CBA), or Association du barreau canadien (ABC) in Canadian French, French, represents over 37,000 lawyers, judges, notaries, law teachers and law students from across Canada. History The Association's first Annu ...

and the

New York State Bar Association The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) is a voluntary bar association for the state of New York. The mission of the association is to cultivate the science of jurisprudence; promote reform in the law; facilitate the administration of justice ...

. His office expanded from Tokyo to Yokohama, Kobe and Shanghai. In 1934, Masujima founded the Sei-Kiu-Do Common Law Library, later called the Sei-Kiu-Do Common Law Institute, originally located on his lands in the middle of Tokyo. His motivation was to develop a central theory of law that offered justice. At the time Japanese law was governed by a mixture of customary law, German civil code and part of the English law merchant.Whitfield, A. (2009) 'An Honour from Japan'. ''Middle Templar'', No. 47, Winter 2009, p.12 At some point during the 1930s, Masujima met Martin Taylor, President of the

, on the deck of an Atlantic transport liner, which was waiting for the tide in the Thames. A strong friendship developed between the two men, which led to the setting up of the Common Law Foundation in America. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Masujima was unable to return to Japan for two years. The Sei-Kiu-Do Common Law Library suffered greatly from bomb damage. After the war, Anglo-American Law Research became popular in Japan and his library was deposited in the Supreme Court of Japan in 1949, after his death.

Chuo University establishment

In 1885 Rokuichiro Masujima led some fellow 18 young attorneys to established the English law school as a research institute focusing

Anglo-American Common Law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...

which in 1905 was later renamed to “Chuo University” and it began operating as an college for legal, financial and political field. The word 'Chuo' is said to be derived from a Japanese words “''Chuo Ho-in''” translated in English as Legal Training Institution Middle Temple where together with the other co-founder of Chuo University studies in England. Logo yoko

After the establishment of Chuo, he became the first director of the institution.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Masujima, Rokuichiro 1857 births 1948 deaths People from Tokyo Members of the Middle Temple 19th-century Japanese lawyers 20th-century Japanese lawyers