GOTO SHOJIRO, HAKUSHAKU

(Count) born April 13, 1838, Tosa Province, Japan died Aug. 4, 1897, Tokyo one of the leaders of the Meiji Restoration, the 1868 overthrow of feudal authority in Japan, and a major proponent of restructuring the new government along Western parliamentary lines. He was the cofounder of the first political party in Japan. The chief councillor to the head of the feudal fief of Tosa, in 1867 Goto persuaded his lord to pressure the Shogun, or feudal military dictator of Japan, to resign his office. The Shogun complied, but it soon became clear that radicals from other fiefs would accept nothing less than a total alteration in the existing power structure. Goto then joined the rebels, assuring the success of the projected coup. Whereas he and most other rebel leaders had previously advocated the expulsion of all foreigners from Japan, Goto, as a leader in the new government, became a forceful exponent of the adoption of Western ways. Piqued at the lack of Tosa men in the administration, Goto resigned and helped found the Aikoku Koto (Public Party of Patriots), an independent political club advocating the introduction of popular participation in the government. In 1881 he cofounded the first Japanese political party, the Jiyuto (Liberal Party), based on Rousseauean democratic doctrines. After the movement was discontinued briefly, Goto reorganized it as a league calling for revision of Japan's treaties with the West. Upon the promulgation of the constitution and co-optation of the party leaders, he joined the government in March 1889 as communications minister.