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List of Japanese court ranks, positions and hereditary titles

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Shigeru Yoshida ( 吉田 茂 , Yoshida Shigeru , 22 September 1878 – 20 October 1967) was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1946 to 1947 and again from 1948 to 1954, serving through most of the country's occupation after World War II . Yoshida played a major role in determining the course of post-war Japan by forging a strong relationship with the United States and pursuing economic recovery.

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119-577: The court ranks of Japan , also known in Japanese as ikai (位階), are indications of an individual's court rank in Japan based on the system of the state . Ikai as a system was originally used in the Ritsuryo system, which was the political administration system used in ancient China , and the indication of the rank of bureaucrats and officials in countries that inherited (class system). Currently,

238-407: A "priority production system" (傾斜生産方式, keisha seisan hoshiki ) designed to increase production of steel and coal as they were essential for reconstruction. This system was based on the theories of Hiromi Arisawa, an economic expert who advised Yoshida. The cabinet had to face significant social unrest due to the impoverished situation and labour disputes at the time. These issues came to a head when

357-637: A benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action. Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English: The amazed he ran down

476-594: A complex system of honorifics , with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned. The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters , known as kanji ( 漢字 , ' Han characters') , with two unique syllabaries (or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters: hiragana ( ひらがな or 平仮名 , 'simple characters') and katakana ( カタカナ or 片仮名 , 'partial characters'). Latin script ( rōmaji ローマ字 )

595-423: A conflict with Hatoyama. According to CIA files that were declassified in 2005, there was a 1952 plot to assassinate Yoshida and replace him with Ichirō Hatoyama as prime minister. The plot was led by Takushiro Hattori , who served as an Imperial Japanese Army officer, and had the support of 500,000 Japanese people. Dissatisfaction with his leadership led to the defection of many Diet members from his party to

714-414: A distinct language of its own that has absorbed various aspects from neighboring languages. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron ) in rōmaji , a repeated vowel character in hiragana , or a chōonpu succeeding the vowel in katakana . /u/ ( listen )

833-510: A former samurai family, Yoshida graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in 1906 and joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs . He held various assignments abroad, including in China, where he advocated increased Japanese influence. From 1928 to 1930, Yoshida served as vice minister of foreign affairs, then served as ambassador to Italy until 1932. In 1936, he was considered for foreign minister in

952-419: A glide /j/ and either the first part of a geminate consonant ( っ / ッ , represented as Q) or a moraic nasal in the coda ( ん / ン , represented as N). The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and assimilates to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including [ɴ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɰ̃] . Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as

1071-484: A listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations. Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it

1190-668: A member of the House of Representatives until 1963 . Yoshida served a president of the America-Japan Society from 1960 and as chancellor of Kogakkan University from 1962. He was also president of the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums . Shigeru Yoshida died on 20 October 1967 at his home in Oiso. He was baptized on his deathbed, having hidden his Catholicism throughout most of his life. His funeral

1309-488: A minimum. Thirdly, Japan emphasizes economic diplomacy in its world affairs. The Yoshida doctrine was accepted by the United States; the actual term was coined in 1977. The economic dimension was fostered by Hayato Ikeda who served as his finance minister and later was prime minister. The Yoshida Doctrine shaped Japanese foreign policy into the 21st century. Most historians argue the policy was wise and successful, but

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1428-525: A minority criticize it as naïve and inappropriate. Before the signing of the Treaty of San Francisco Ichirō Hatoyama had been released from the purge. Since Yoshida had originally become prime minister as a replacement for Hatoyama, many expected him to step down in Hatoyama's favour, but by this time Yoshida had become a well-established politician in his own right and had no intention to retire. This led to

1547-552: A nebulous role as an ambassador-in-waiting. He undertook some foreign tours on behalf of the ministry and notably developed a warm relationship with the American ambassador Joseph Grew . Yoshida formally retired from the ministry in 1935. In the aftermath of the February 26 incident of 1936, Prince Fumimaro Konoe contacted Yoshida to request that he'd help persuade Koki Hirota accept the premiership. Yoshida assisted Hirota in

1666-540: A prime ministers from 1960 to 1964 and 1964 to 1972 respectively. Yoshida died in 1967 and received a state funeral. His grandson, Tarō Asō , served as prime minister from 2008 to 2009. Shigeru Yoshida was born on 22 September 1878, in Kanda-Surugadai , Tokyo , the fifth son of Tsuna Takeuchi, a former samurai of the Tosa domain . Tsuna Takeuchi was a close aide to Taisuke Itagaki in the 1880s and would serve in

1785-408: A sentence need not be stated and pronouns may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above, hana ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long", while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! ( やった! ) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below),

1904-428: A single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! ( 羨ましい! ) "[I'm] jealous [about it]!". While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate

2023-430: A year at home in Ōiso. Returning to Tokyo in 1897, he entered the prestigious Peers' School, the headed by Prince Atsumaro Konoe . Yoshida advanced to the university department at Peers’ School, which Prince Konoe had established to train diplomats. The university department became defunct after Prince Konoe died in 1904, so Yoshida transferred to Tokyo Imperial University and graduated with a law degree in 1906. He passed

2142-624: Is compressed rather than protruded , or simply unrounded. Some Japanese consonants have several allophones , which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [tɕi] , approximately chi ( listen ) ; however, now [ti] and [tɕi] are distinct, as evidenced by words like tī [tiː] "Western-style tea" and chii [tɕii] "social status". The "r" of

2261-448: Is also seen in o-medetō "congratulations", from medetaku ). Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from European languages – now-common words borrowed into Japanese in this period include pan ("bread") and tabako ("tobacco", now "cigarette"), both from Portuguese . Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese,

2380-527: Is also used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms) in Japanese writing. The numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals , but also traditional Chinese numerals . Proto-Japonic , the common ancestor of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages , is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from the Korean peninsula sometime in the early- to mid-4th century BC (the Yayoi period ), replacing

2499-643: Is an agglutinative , mora -timed language with relatively simple phonotactics , a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent . Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure is topic–comment . Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender , and there are no articles . Verbs are conjugated , primarily for tense and voice , but not person . Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has

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2618-440: Is appropriate to use sensei ( 先生 , "teacher"), but inappropriate to use anata . This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status. Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon ( 本 ) may refer to a single book or several books; hito ( 人 ) can mean "person" or "people", and ki ( 木 ) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number

2737-701: Is associated with comedy (see Kansai dialect ). Dialects of Tōhoku and North Kantō are associated with typical farmers. The Ryūkyūan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands (administratively part of Kagoshima ), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryūkyūan languages. However, in contrast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider

2856-466: Is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for instance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam ). Among other sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to /ɔː/ , in contrast with /oː/ ; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/ merges with /je/ . Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear – the continuative ending - te begins to reduce onto

2975-665: Is conferred on many former prime ministers, and the Junior Second Rank ( 従二位 ) on top-class politicians, such as former speakers of the National Diet and former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The Senior Third Rank ( 正三位 ) is posthumously conferred mainly on civilians who are recognized as having done the most for the nation's development, such as founders of large companies and the novelists and artists who represented Japan. The Junior Third Rank ( 従三位 )

3094-509: Is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi ( 私 , literally "private") or watakushi (also 私 , hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore ( 俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku . Similarly, different words such as anata , kimi , and omae ( お前 , more formally 御前 "the one before me") may refer to

3213-417: Is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word ) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. 人人 , hitobito , usually written with an iteration mark as 人々 ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka . Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through

3332-590: Is in many cases conferred on artists who created Japan's famous masterpieces. The Junior First Rank is bestowed directly by the incumbent Emperor. The Second through Fourth Ranks are awarded by Imperial decree. The awarding of the Fifth Ranks or lower is decided by a hearing from the Cabinet and a decision by the Emperor to the hearing. In the era when the Ritsuryo system was in place, the official position in

3451-556: Is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered the language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese . Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and

3570-755: Is less common. In terms of mutual intelligibility , a survey in 1967 found that the four most unintelligible dialects (excluding Ryūkyūan languages and Tōhoku dialects ) to students from Greater Tokyo were the Kiso dialect (in the deep mountains of Nagano Prefecture ), the Himi dialect (in Toyama Prefecture ), the Kagoshima dialect and the Maniwa dialect (in Okayama Prefecture ). The survey

3689-420: Is often called a topic-prominent language , which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai ( 象は鼻が長い ) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose". Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of

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3808-498: Is preserved in words such as matsuge ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern mieru ("to be visible") and kikoeru ("to be audible") retain a mediopassive suffix - yu(ru) ( kikoyu → kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → kikoeru (all verbs with the shimo-nidan conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in Early Modern Japanese )); and

3927-488: Is subdivided into Upper and Lower Grades. The Senior Fifth Rank, Upper Grade ( 正五位上 , shō go-i no jō ) is the highest Fifth Rank and the Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade ( 従五位下 , ju go-i no ge ) the lowest. The Sixth Rank is divided into Senior and Junior, and each is subdivided into Upper and Lower Grades. The Senior Sixth Rank, Upper Grade ( 正六位上 , shō roku-i no jō ) is the highest Sixth Rank and

4046-583: Is the national language , and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes the Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language . There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as the Ainu , Austronesian , Koreanic , and the now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance. Little

4165-586: Is the highest, and the Junior Eighth Rank, Lower Grade ( 従八位下 , ju hachi-i no ge ) , is the lowest. The Initial Rank ( 初位 , sho-i ) is divided into Greater ( 大 , dai ) and Lesser ( 少 , shō ) , and each is subdivided into Upper and Lower Grades. The Greater Initial Rank, Upper Grade ( 大初位上 , dai sho-i no jō ) is the highest Initial Rank, and the Lesser Initial Rank, Lower Grade ( 少初位下 , shō sho-i no ge )

4284-494: Is the second highest rank, conferred in many cases on the highest ministers, premier feudal lords, and their wives. Nobles with the Third Rank or upper were called kugyō . Successive Tokugawa shoguns held the highest or near-highest court ranks, higher than most court nobles. They were made Shō ni-i ( 正二位 , Senior Second Rank) of court rank upon assuming office, then Ju ichi-i ( 従一位 , Junior First Rank) , and

4403-402: Is the version of Japanese discussed in this article. Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( 文語 , bungo , "literary language") was different from colloquial language ( 口語 , kōgo ) . The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then kōgo gradually extended its influence and

4522-471: Is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) aspect , similar to the suffix ing in English. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru means "They have come (and are still here)", but tabete iru means "They are eating". Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have

4641-405: Is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced , "your ( majestic plural ) grace") or Portuguese você (from vossa mercê ). Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom. The choice of words used as pronouns

4760-462: The Japonic language family, which also includes the Ryukyuan languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands . As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is sometimes called a language isolate . According to Martine Irma Robbeets , Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in

4879-514: The Philippines , and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil , with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE data, more than

List of Japanese court ranks, positions and hereditary titles - Misplaced Pages Continue

4998-555: The Taisho era , about 300 years after their deaths. The Fourth Rank is divided into Senior and Junior, and each is subdivided into Upper ( 上 , jō ) and Lower ( 下 , ge ) Grades. The Senior Fourth Rank, Upper Grade ( 正四位上 , shō shi-i no jō ) is the highest Fourth Rank and the Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade ( 従四位下 , ju shi-i no ge ) the lowest. The Fifth Rank is divided into Senior and Junior, and each

5117-738: The United States (notably in Hawaii , where 16.7% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and California ), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao Region and the Province of Laguna ). Japanese has no official status in Japan, but is the de facto national language of the country. There is a form of the language considered standard : hyōjungo ( 標準語 ) , meaning "standard Japanese", or kyōtsūgo ( 共通語 ) , "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times. The meanings of

5236-651: The cabinet of Prince Higashikuni after the resignation of Mamoru Shigemitsu in September 1945. At that point, the main fuction of the foreign minister was to liaise with the occupation authority: the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers . As such, Yoshida came into regular contact with General Douglas MacArthur . When Prince Higashikuni resigned Yoshida was approached by the Lord Keeper of

5355-806: The de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect , especially that of Kyoto . However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages—such as German, Portuguese and English. Many English loan words especially relate to technology—for example, pasokon (short for "personal computer"), intānetto ("internet"), and kamera ("camera"). Due to

5474-527: The 1.2 million of the United States ) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru , Argentina , Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver , where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry),

5593-579: The 1970s environmental movement, the bursting of Japan's economic bubble, and the end of the Cold War, Japan has been struggling to redefine its national goals. Yoshida has long been regarded as prioritising the economy over defense, but recent years have seen a reevaluation of this viewpoint. In his 1982 book "Leaders", US President Richard Nixon praised Yoshida as one of the greatest world leaders during his lifetime for his role in Japan's post-WWII economic miracle. In 1909, Yoshida married Makino Yukiko,

5712-774: The Foreign Service Entry Exam and entered Japan's diplomatic corps that same year, shortly after Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War . Yoshida's diplomatic career began with a posting in China , first at the Japanese mission in Tianjin in November 1906, then in Fengtian (now Shenyang) in 1907. In 1909, Yoshida married Yukiko Makino, the eldest daughter of Nobuaki Makino . That same year he

5831-484: The Japanese court ranks and titles are among the types of honours conferred to those who have held government posts for a long time and to those who have made distinguished achievements. In recent times, most appointments, if not all, are offered posthumously. A notable recipient of such a court rank is the late former prime minister Shinzo Abe received Junior First Rank (従一位, ju ichi-i ) on 8 July 2022. The national system for ranking politicians and officials who served

5950-857: The Japanese dynasty began in 603 when Empress Suiko enacted the Twelve Level Cap and Rank System . Each rank was identified by the color of a crown the person with the rank wore. There were twelve ranks: Greater Virtue ( 大徳 , dai-toku ) , Lesser Virtue ( 小徳 , shō-toku ) , Greater Benevolence ( 大仁 , dai-jin ) , Lesser Benevolence ( 小仁 , shō-jin ) , Greater Propriety ( 大礼 , dai-rei ) , Lesser Propriety ( 小礼 , shō-rei ) , Greater Sincerity ( 大信 , dai-shin ) , Lesser Sincerity ( 小信 , shō-shin ) , Greater Justice ( 大義 , dai-gi ) , Lesser Justice ( 小義 , shō-gi ) , Greater Knowledge ( 大智 , dai-chi ) , and Lesser Knowledge ( 小智 , shō-chi ) , from top to bottom. The ranking system underwent several amendments and

6069-486: The Japanese language is of particular interest, ranging between an apical central tap and a lateral approximant . The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced [ ŋ ] , in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects. The phonotactics of Japanese are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant,

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6188-574: The Japanese plenipotentiaries. When the conference concluded in 1920, he was assigned as first secretary to the Japanese embassy in the United Kingdom . In 1922, he returned to China and served as consul in Tianjin until 1925, then as Consul General in Fengtian until 1928. In March 1928, Yoshida was first appointed minister to Sweden , Norway , and Denmark , but before assuming the post he

6307-537: The Junior Fourth Rank, Upper Grade. Junior Counselors required the Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade. The Minister of the Center needed the Senior Fourth Rank, Upper Grade. Other ministers required the Senior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade. A hereditary title was conferred by an Emperor on an Imperial family member, a noble, or a clan under the kabane system to signify his political and social status. This title

6426-537: The Junior Second Rank ( 従二位 , ju ni-i ) . A Major Counselor ( 大納言 , dainagon ) needed the Senior Third Rank ( 正三位 , shō san-mi ) , and a Middle Counselor ( 中納言 , chūnagon ) needed the Junior Third Rank ( 従三位 , ju san-mi ) . Associate Counselors ( 参議 , sangi ) required the Senior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade ( 正四位下 , shō shi-i no ge ) . Controllers needed

6545-678: The Junior Sixth Rank, Lower Grade ( 従六位下 , ju roku-i no ge ) the lowest. The Seventh Rank is divided into Senior and Junior, and each is subdivided into Upper and Lower Grades. The Senior Seventh Rank, Upper Grade ( 正七位上 , shō shichi-i no jō ) is the highest Seventh Rank and the Junior Seventh Rank, Lower Grade ( 従七位下 , ju shichi-i no ge ) the lowest. The Eighth Rank is divided into Senior and Junior, subdivided into Upper and Lower Grades. The Senior Eighth Rank, Upper Grade ( 正八位上 , shō hachi-i no jō ) ,

6664-762: The Ministry became aware Yoshida had opposed the Twenty-One Demands , which he thought undermined the Japanese policy in China by alienating the Western powers and provoking Chinese opposition. Yoshida was instead made chief of the documents section the following year and in 1918 he was appointed consul in Jinan , China. In 1919, he was part of the Japanese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference , as secretary to his father-in-law Makino, one of

6783-736: The Old Japanese sections are written in Man'yōgana , which uses kanji for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct morae . Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of kanji for each of the morae now pronounced き (ki), ひ (hi), み (mi), け (ke), へ (he), め (me), こ (ko), そ (so), と (to), の (no), も (mo), よ (yo) and ろ (ro). (The Kojiki has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo 1 and mo 2 apparently

6902-732: The Privy Seal Koichi Kido to become prime minister, but he turned him down and suggested Kijuro Shidehara for the post, who was duly appointed. Yoshida remained foreign minister in the Shidehara Cabinet . The first post-war election in April 1946 brought a plurality of the seats in the Diet to the Liberal Party led by Yoshida's old friend Ichirō Hatoyama . Hatoyama was expected to become prime minister, but

7021-488: The Ryūkyūan languages as dialects of Japanese. The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese of the time, most likely the spoken form of Classical Japanese , a writing style that was prevalent during the Heian period , but began to decline during the late Meiji period . The Ryūkyūan languages are classified by UNESCO as 'endangered', as young people mostly use Japanese and cannot understand

7140-763: The Socialist Party, about including the Liberal Party in a grand coalition , but he declined because he considered the left-wing of the Socialist Party too close to the communists. The Socialists instead formed a coalition with only the Democratic Party , which had been formed by merging the Progressive Party with defectors led by Hitoshi Ashida from the Liberal Party, and the National Cooperative Party . Yoshida

7259-534: The U.S. Yoshida pursued a strategy of concentrating on economic reconstruction while relying on an alliance with the United States for defense, a strategy known as the Yoshida Doctrine . The last years of his premiership were marked by conflict with Hatoyama, who had by then been depurged. This culminated in Yoshida being ousted and replaced by Hatoyama in 1954. Yoshida's legacy continued to play an important part in Japanese political life, particularly through his two protégés, Hayato Ikeda and Eisaku Satō , who served

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7378-543: The addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi , but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present (or non-past) which

7497-403: The cabinet formation and was himself considered for the post of foreign minister. However, he was included on a list of potential cabinet ministers unacceptable to the army presented by the incoming War Minister Hisaichi Terauchi . This prevented his appointment. Instead he became ambassador to the United Kingdom. After his ambassadorship to the United Kingdom ended in 1938, he retired, again, from

7616-503: The cabinet of Kōki Hirota , but he was opposed by the Army , who strongly identified him with liberalism and friendship with Great Britain and the United States. Yoshida served as ambassador to Britain from 1936 to 1938. He largely avoided political participation during the Pacific War . During the U.S. occupation after the war's end, Yoshida served as foreign minister in the cabinets of Prince Higashikuni and Kijūrō Shidehara . Yoshida became prime minister in 1946, after Ichirō Hatoyama

7735-451: The court and ikai of bureaucrats were closely related. For example, becoming the Chancellor of the Realm ( 太政大臣 , daijō daijin ) , the highest position in the administration, required the Senior or Junior First Rank ( 正一位、従一位 , shō ichi-i, ju ichi-i ) . To become the Minister of the Left, Right, or Center ( 左大臣、右大臣、内大臣 , sadaijin, udaijin, naidaijin ) , he had to be in either the Senior Second Rank ( 正二位 , shō ni-i ) or

7854-448: The decades of unrest around the time of Meiji Restoration . Since Takeuchi had several sons and his friend Kenzō Yoshida had none, Yoshida was adopted by Kenzō Yoshida and his wife Kotoko in August 1881. Kenzō Yoshida was a former samurai who had traveled to England as a stowaway in his youth. He then established himself in Yokohama as a branch manager for Jardine Matheson , before becoming a successful businessman in his own right. Kotoko

7973-464: The diplomatic service. Although considered a "hawk" on China, Yoshida was firmly against war with the United States and United Kingdom. Despite holding no official positions during World War II , he was active in trying to prevent war with the Allies, and then to try to bring about an early end of the war, allying himself with Prince Fumimaro Konoe . Right before the Pacific War began, Yoshida joined Konoe in unsuccessfully attempting to deescalate

8092-415: The effect of changing Japanese into a mora-timed language. Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly equivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period , respectively. The later forms of Late Middle Japanese are the first to be described by non-native sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries; and thus there

8211-438: The fall of the Ashida Cabinet, Yoshida returned to the post of prime minister on 15 October 1948. He soon called an election which was held in January 1949; his party won in a landslide. In order to fill the places left by purged politicians, Yoshida had recruited a large number of former bureaucrats to serve as candidates for the party, including Hayato Ikeda , Eisaku Sato and Katsuo Okazaki . Many of these were elected for

8330-477: The first National Diet elected in 1890 . The identity of Yoshida's biological mother is not known. It's likely she was a concubine of Takeuchi and possibly a geisha . Shortly before Yoshida's birth, his biological father was imprisoned for anti-government conspiracy in connection to the Satsuma Rebellion , and his mother gave birth to him at the house of Kenzō Yoshida, a friend of his father. As young samurai, Tsuna and Kenzō had made names for themselves amidst

8449-423: The first appearance of European loanwords . The basis of the standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo ) in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese

8568-572: The first time in the 1949 election. This group would be the core of Yoshida’s own informal faction, known as the ”Yoshida School." In February after the election, Joseph Dodge arrived in Japan as financial adviser to SCAP with a mission to stabilize the Japanese economy, which was suffering from rampant inflation and other problems. The Dodge Line , as the plan advocated by Dodge would be called, prescribed strict austerity measures that significantly curtailed public spending and government subsidies. Yoshida appointed Hayato Ikeda finance minister later

8687-523: The following ranking system. Each of the First to Third Ranks is divided into Senior ( 正 , shō ) and Junior ( 従 , ju ) . The Senior First Rank ( 正一位 , shō ichi-i ) is the highest in the rank system. It is conferred mainly on a very limited number of persons recognized by the Imperial Court as most loyal to the nation during that era. The Junior First Rank ( 従一位 , ju ichi-i )

8806-547: The general council before being formally elected party president four months later. Yoshida's first cabinet was based on a coalition between the Liberal Party and the Japan Progressive Party led by former prime minister Shidehara. The cabinet notably included Shidehara as minister without portfolio and Tanzan Ishibashi as finance minister. Yoshida remained as foreign minister concurrently. The cabinet implemented several reforms based on occupation directives,

8925-609: The genitive particle ga remains in intentionally archaic speech. Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period , from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the literary standard of Classical Japanese , which remained in common use until the early 20th century. During this time, Japanese underwent numerous phonological developments, in many cases instigated by an influx of Chinese loanwords . These included phonemic length distinction for both consonants and vowels , palatal consonants (e.g. kya ) and labial consonant clusters (e.g. kwa ), and closed syllables . This had

9044-600: The highest rank of Shō ichi-i ( 正一位 , Senior First Rank) was conferred upon them upon their death. The Tokugawa shogunate established that the court ranks granted to daimyo by the imperial court were based on the recommendation of the Tokugawa shogunate, and the court ranks were used to control the daimyo . Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi were Shō ni-i ( 正二位 , Senior Second Rank) and Ju ichi-i ( 従一位 , Junior First Rank) respectively, but both were elevated to Shō ichi-i ( 正一位 , Senior First Rank) in

9163-427: The labour movement called for a general strike to take place on 1 February 1947. Yoshida believed that the strike would be an economic catastrophe, which could create the conditions for a communist revolution. The situation was resolved when General MacArthur prohibited the strike before it could take place on January 31. Afterwards, MacArthur communicated to Yoshida that a new election should be called. The election

9282-458: The languages of the original Jōmon inhabitants, including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language . Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period must be based on internal reconstruction from Old Japanese , or comparison with the Ryukyuan languages and Japanese dialects . The Chinese writing system

9401-449: The languages. Okinawan Japanese is a variant of Standard Japanese influenced by the Ryūkyūan languages, and is the primary dialect spoken among young people in the Ryukyu Islands . Modern Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryūkyū islands) due to education , mass media , and an increase in mobility within Japan, as well as economic integration. Japanese is a member of

9520-427: The large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between [tɕi] and [ti] , and [dʑi] and [di] , with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords. Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has also been spoken outside of the country. Before and during World War II , through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea , as well as partial occupation of China ,

9639-783: The lowest. The 1887 Ordinance on Ordination reorganized the ranking system. It abolished the Initial Ranks and the Grades of Upper and Lower of Fourth and lower Ranks. The relationships between ikai and court positions were also abolished. There were then a total of 16 ranks, ranging from the Senior First Rank ( 正一位 , shō ichi-i ) to the Junior Eighth Rank ( 従八位 , ju hachi-i ) , as shown below: Ōkuma Shigenobu (1922) , Tōgō Heihachirō (1934) , Shigeru Yoshida (1967) , Eisaku Satō (1975) , Yasuhiro Nakasone (2019) , Shinzo Abe (2022) Sanjo Sanetomi

9758-614: The message that the Japanese government would accept a continued U. S. military presence after the occupation in order to ensure Japan’s security and make an early peace treaty possible. President Truman assigned the responsibility of negotiating a peace treaty to John Foster Dulles . Dulles met with Yoshida in Tokyo for the first time in June 1950, only days before the outbreak of the Korean War. They subsequently met several times to negotiate

9877-405: The new Democratic Party , causing his cabinet to resign on December 7, 1954, rather than face a no-confidence vote. He was replaced by Ichirō Hatoyama on December 10, 1954. Yoshida resigned as party president in favour of Taketora Ogata at the same time. He remained in the Diet until his retirement in 1963. After his resignation he spent most of his time at his villa in Oiso, though he remained

9996-425: The only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. The basic sentence structure is topic–comment . For example, Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu ( こちらは田中さんです ). kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by

10115-470: The out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta ( 教えてもらった ) (literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta ( 教えてあげた ) (literally, "explaining gave" with

10234-539: The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950. The war led to an economic boom stimulated by demand for goods and services from Japan by the American forces in Korea. Yoshida described this as a ”gift from the gods.” In April 1950 Yoshida sent Finance Minister Ikeda, together with Ikeda’s secretary Kiichi Miyazawa and Yoshida’s confidant Jiro Shirasu , to Washington. On the pretext of an economic mission, Ikeda conveyed

10353-415: The particle wa . The verb desu is a copula , commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mx Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages,

10472-491: The presentation of ranks has been limited to those who have already died, with the idea of abolishing the privileges associated with conferring honors, and ranks have been presented posthumously. Today, the Junior First Rank ( 従一位 ) is the highest available rank, which is posthumously conferred primarily on persons deemed being served most to the nation out of former prime ministers. The Senior Second Rank ( 正二位 )

10591-481: The proposed larger Altaic family, or to various Southeast Asian languages , especially Austronesian . None of these proposals have gained wide acceptance (and the Altaic family itself is now considered controversial). As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support. Other theories view the Japanese language as an early creole language formed through inputs from at least two distinct language groups, or as

10710-489: The same month. Although Yoshida and Ikeda had apprehensions about the Dodge Line, they had no choice but to implement occupation policy. The plan was successful in ending hyperinflation, but it also caused severe short-term hardship. The decreased money supply led to a wave of bankruptcies and increased unemployment. Furthermore, spending cuts necessitated mass layoffs in the public sector. This situation continued until

10829-459: The same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu ( いいです ) "It is OK" becomes ii desu-ka ( いいですか。 ) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no ( の ) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning

10948-416: The scope of which Yoshida personally resisted. Yoshida oversaw the adoption of the post-war Constitution of Japan , which was promulgated on 3 November 1946 and came into effect on 3 May 1947. Yoshida, a warm supporter of the imperial institution, did not believe that the revised constitution fundamentally changed the kokutai . In terms of economic policy, Yoshida and Finance Minister Ishibashi initiated

11067-564: The situation. During the war, Yoshida continued to associate with Konoe in trying to get the government to negotiate a peace with the Allies. In April 1945, he was arrested and briefly imprisoned over his association with Prince Konoe. Following the Japanese surrender in August 1945, the Allied occupation of the country began. Yoshida was brought out of retirement to serve as foreign minister in

11186-817: The state as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the South Seas Mandate over the island shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese, but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home. Japanese dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent , inflectional morphology , vocabulary , and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this

11305-481: The street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun) But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese: 驚いた彼は道を走っていった。 Transliteration: Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct) This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" ( 君 "lord"), anata "you" ( あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" ( 僕 "servant"). This

11424-554: The topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore wa? "(What about) this?"; O-namae wa? ( お名前は? ) "(What's your) name?". Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan o taberu ( パンを食べる。 ) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan o tabenai ( パンを食べない。 ) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread". Plain negative forms are i -adjectives (see below) and inflect as such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta ( パンを食べなかった。 ) "I did not eat bread". Shigeru Yoshida Born in Tokyo to

11543-528: The treaty. In September 1951, Yoshida signed the Treaty of San Francisco , a peace treaty with the Allies that would serve as a formal peace agreement and bring about the end of the occupation of Japan when the treaty took effect in April 1952. Yoshida also signed the Security Treaty , which inaugurated the post-war military alliance between Japan and the United States. During a stopover in Hawaii on

11662-419: The two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Japanese also includes a pitch accent , which is not represented in moraic writing; for example [haꜜ.ɕi] ("chopsticks") and [ha.ɕiꜜ] ("bridge") are both spelled はし ( hashi ) , and are only differentiated by the tone contour. Japanese word order is classified as subject–object–verb . Unlike many Indo-European languages ,

11781-577: The two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s. Bungo still has some relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in bungo , although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). Kōgo is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect. The 1982 state constitution of Angaur , Palau , names Japanese along with Palauan and English as an official language of

11900-480: The two terms (''hyōjungo'' and ''kyōtsūgo'') are almost the same. Hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 , meiji ishin , 1868) from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see Yamanote ). Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications. It

12019-407: The verb (e.g. yonde for earlier yomite ), the -k- in the final mora of adjectives drops out ( shiroi for earlier shiroki ); and some forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hayɔɔ , where modern Japanese just has hayaku , though the alternative form is preserved in the standard greeting o-hayō gozaimasu "good morning"; this ending

12138-533: The way back from San Francisco, he also paid a visit to Pearl Harbor . The Yoshida Doctrine was a strategy adopted by Japan under Yoshida starting in 1951. He concentrated upon reconstructing Japan's domestic economy while relying heavily on the security alliance with the United States . Firstly, Japan is firmly allied with the United States in the Cold War against communism. Secondly, Japan relies on American military strength and limits its own defense forces to

12257-548: The world. Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as Ainu , Korean , Chinese , Tibeto-Burman , Uralic , Altaic (or Ural-Altaic ), Austroasiatic , Austronesian and Dravidian . At the fringe, some linguists have even suggested a link to Indo-European languages , including Greek , or to Sumerian . Main modern theories try to link Japanese either to northern Asian languages, like Korean or

12376-480: Was purged by authorities on the verge of taking office; Yoshida served as foreign minister in his own first three cabinets. He oversaw the adoption of the Constitution of Japan before losing office after the election of 1947. He returned to the premiership in 1948, and negotiated the Treaty of San Francisco , which ended the occupation and saw the restoration of sovereignty to Japan, and a security treaty with

12495-493: Was abruptly purged by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers on the eve of his appointment. Hatoyama approached Yoshida to take his place as prime minister and leader of the Liberal Party, despite Yoshida not even being a member of the party. Although reluctant, Yoshida eventually accepted, becoming prime minister of Japan on 22 May 1946. In the same month he joined the Liberal Party and was first made chairman of

12614-606: Was appointed vice minister for foreign affairs in July of the same year, after having recommended himself to the Prime Minister Giichi Tanaka . Tanaka served concurrently as minister for foreign affairs. During this time, Yoshida supported increasing Japanese influence in China, and advocated for the independence of Manchuria and Mongolia to weaken the Republic of China. He acquainted Ichiro Hatoyama , who

12733-569: Was assigned to Italy , and in 1912, he was posted to Andong in Japanese-ruled Korea , where he served concurrently as secretary to the Governor General Masatake Terauchi . When Terauchi was appointed prime minister in 1916, Yoshida turned down an offer to serve as his personal secretary. He was instead assigned to the Japanese embassy in the United States , but this appointment was cancelled when

12852-539: Was based on 12- to 20-second-long recordings of 135 to 244 phonemes , which 42 students listened to and translated word-for-word. The listeners were all Keio University students who grew up in the Kanto region . There are some language islands in mountain villages or isolated islands such as Hachijō-jima island , whose dialects are descended from Eastern Old Japanese . Dialects of the Kansai region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particular

12971-463: Was chief cabinet secretary under Tanaka. Yoshida remained in his post when Tanaka was replaced as prime minister by Osachi Hamaguchi and as foreign minister by Kijūrō Shidehara in July 1929, until he was appointed ambassador to Italy in December 1930. He returned to Japan in 1932 and, after having turned down the ambassadorship to the United States, for which he considered himself unsuitable, held

13090-625: Was developed by the Taiho Code enacted in 701. Under this system, ranks were established for the Imperial family members and vassals like the following: An Emperor was not ranked. Princes, princesses, and other Imperial family members were ranked depending on the extent of their contribution to the nation or other factors as follows: Under the Taiho Code, politicians and officials other than Imperial family members were graded according to

13209-530: Was held in April 1947 election . Yoshida himself stood for election for the first time, choosing for his constituency Kochi Prefecture , where his family originated. While Yoshida won his election, a plurality of the seats in the House of Representatives went to the Japan Socialist Party . Yoshida was approached by Tetsu Katayama and Suehiro Nishio , respectively chairman and secretary general of

13328-607: Was held in St. Mary's Cathedral, Tokyo and he was buried at Aoyama Cemetery . His state funeral was held in Nippon Budokan on 31 October 1967 in the presence of the Crown Prince and Princess . Under Yoshida's leadership, Japan began to rebuild its lost industrial infrastructure and placed a premium on unrestrained economic growth. Many of these concepts still impact Japan's political and economic policies. However, since

13447-735: Was imported to Japan from Baekje around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism. The earliest texts were written in Classical Chinese , although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the kanbun method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order. The earliest text, the Kojiki , dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, kanbun , and Old Japanese. As in other texts from this period,

13566-399: Was inherited from generation to generation in the family until the hereditary title system was discontinued in 1871 by law. Japanese language Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo , [ɲihoŋɡo] ) is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people . It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan , the only country where it

13685-474: Was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of morae shrank to 67 in Early Middle Japanese , though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for /je/ , which merges with /e/ before the end of the period. Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle tsu (superseded by modern no )

13804-515: Was not at school. Yoshida spent five years at Koyo Juku. In 1894 he went to Tokyo and spent a year studying at Nihon Gakuen, a school run by the famous educator Jugo Sugiura. He then went on to Higher Commercial School , but soon found he was unsuited for business and dropped out. He then briefly studied at Seisoku Academy and the Tokyo Physics School while preparing for higher school examinations, but he fell ill and had to spend

13923-744: Was succeeded by Tetsu Katayama on 24 May 1947. Yoshida and his party thus entered the opposition. Yoshida used this time to strengthen his party and consolidate his leadership. Shortly after the Katayama Cabinet was replaced by the Ashida Cabinet in March 1948, the Liberal Party formed into the Democratic Liberal Party by merging with a breakaway group led by Shidehara from the Democratic Party. After

14042-473: Was the granddaughter of the Edo period Confucian scholar Issai Satō . Yoshida spent his early childhood in Yokohama. After he graduated from elementary school there in 1889, he was enrolled at Koyo Juku, a prestigious rural boarding school. That same year, Kenzō Yoshida died, and Shigeru inherited a substantial fortune from him. Kotoko subsequently raised Shigeru on the family's estate in Ōiso when he

14161-399: Was the last living person who received the Senior First Rank ( 正一位 ) in 1891, and all subsequent recipients were posthumously received. No persons have been awarded this rank since 1917 when Oda Nobunaga was posthumously awarded. The 1925 Decree on Ranks ( 位階令 ) restricted ordination exclusively to the purpose of conferring honors. Since the current Constitution came into effect in 1947,

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