Viscount was a Japanese businessman, central banker and the 8th Governor of the

Bank of Japan The is the central bank of Japan.Louis Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric. (2005). "Nihon Ginkō" in The bank is often called for short. It has its headquarters in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. History Like most modern Japanese instituti ...

(BOJ). Viscount Mishima was a member of Japan's House of Peers.Masaoka, Naoichi. (1914)
''Japan to America,'' p. 127.
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Early life

Mishima was born in

Kagoshima Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,599,779 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 9,187 km2 (3,547 sq mi). Kagoshima Prefecture borders Kumamoto P ...

. In 1893, Mishima briefly married a daughter of

Ōyama Iwao was a Japanese field marshal, and one of the founders of the Imperial Japanese Army. Biography Early life Ōyama was born in Kagoshima to a ''samurai'' family of the Satsuma Domain. as a younger paternal cousin to Saigo Takamori. A proté ...

, whom he was forced to divorce when she caught

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

. Their relationship was the basis for

Kenjirō Tokutomi (December 8, 1868 – September 18, 1927) was a Japanese writer and philosopher. He wrote novels under the pseudonym of , and his best-known work was his 1899 novel ''The Cuckoo''. Biography Tokutomi was born on December 8, 1868 in Minamat ...

's popular 1899 novel ''The Cuckoo''. In 1894–1900 he studied at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...

where he earned a M.A. degree.

Career

During 1911–1913, Mishima was head of the

Yokohama Specie Bank was a Japanese bank founded in Yokohama, Japan in the year 1880. Its assets were transferred to The Bank of Tokyo (now MUFG Bank) in 1946. The bank played a significant role in Japanese overseas trade, especially with China. The original b ...

. Mishima was Governor of the Bank of Japan from February 28, 1913 to March 7, 1919. As head of the bank, Mishima encouraged policies of monetary restraint. His sudden death in 1919 was unexpected.Metzler,

Notes

References

* Metzler, Mark. (2006). ''Lever of Empire: the International Gold Standard and the Crisis of Liberalism in Prewar Japan.'' Berkeley: University of California Press. ; * Masaoka, Naoichi. (1914).
Japan to America: A Symposium of Papers by Political Leaders and Representative Citizens of Japan on Conditions in Japan and on the Relations Between Japan and the United States
'' New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons ( Japan Society). * Smitka, Michael. (1998). ''The Interwar Economy of Japan: Colonialism, Depression, and Recovery, 1910-1940.'' New York: Garland. ; 1867 births 1919 deaths Cornell University alumni Governors of the Bank of Japan Japanese bankers Members of the House of Peers (Japan) People from Kagoshima {{Japan-business-bio-stub

Early life

Career

See also

Notes

References