{{Unreferenced, date=December 2009 The Japanese word ''Sosai'' (Japanese:総裁, "Sōsai") means roughly "president" or "director-general". It is used in several ways:

Political

*Sosai, or president of the government, was only once the title of the imperial prime minister: from 1 January 1868 (before there was no cabinet, only chief advisers: '' Kampaku'' to the nominally reigning emperor and both '' Rōjū'' and '' Tairō'' to the de facto ruling '' shōgun'') until 11 June 1868: Prince Arisugawa Taruhito (1835–1895); next the prime ministerial office is styled ''

U Daijin U or u, is the twenty-first and sixth-to-last letter and fifth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''u'' (pro ...

'' "Ministers to the Right", in 1871 shortened to ''Daijin''. *Sosai also was the title of Admiral

Takeaki Enomoto Viscount was a Japanese samurai and admiral of the Tokugawa navy of Bakumatsu period Japan, who remained faithful to the Tokugawa shogunate and fought against the new Meiji government until the end of the Boshin War. He later served in the Meij ...

(1836–1908), the elected president (27 January 1869 – 27 June 1869) of the short-lived rebellious Ezo Republic on the present Hokkaidō Island, vanquished by Imperial troops. *Sosai, or President of Liberal Democratic Party, is the office of the head of the LDP.

Others

This office also exist in various sports, in particular budō, business and charitable organizations. The term is also used to translate the head of various foreign organizations. The most famous of such people is Sōsai

Ōyama Masutatsu , more commonly known as Mas Oyama, was a karate master who founded Kyokushin Karate, considered the first and most influential style of full contact karate. A Zainichi Korean, he spent most of his life living in Japan and acquired Japanese ci ...

, who earned this appellation by creating a

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...

style called Kyokushinkai and spreading karate in the western world. Mas Oyama is an exceptional icon to be called "Sosai" because of his contributions especially in the world of Martial Arts and in the overall history of Japan. Heads of state Heads of government Japanese words and phrases