|
, also known as Seihin Ikeda, was a politician, cabinet minister and businessman in the Empire of Japan, prominent in the early decades of the 20th century. He served as director of Mitsui Bank from 1909-1933, was appointed governor of the Bank of Japan in 1937, and served as Minister of Finance under Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe from 1937 to 1939. In 1941, he was made a member of the Imperial Privy Council; following Japan's defeat in World War II, Ikeda was banned from public political service.〔Frédéric, Louis. "Ikeda Seihin". ''Japan Encyclopedia''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2002.〕 ==Background== Ikeda was born in 1867, the final year of the Bakumatsu period in Yonezawa Domain (modern Yamagata Prefecture, as the eldest son of noted samurai Ikeda Nariaki. He moved to Tokyo at age 13. His initial efforts to enroll in either Keio University or Tokyo Imperial University failed due to his lack of English language skills; however after 18 months of private tutoring he was able to secure admission into the newly formed Department of Economics at Keio University in 1890. At the recommendation of Harvard professor Arthur Knapp, who was stationed at Keio University, Ikeda was sent to study at Harvard University in the United States from 1890-1895. After graduation, he returned to Japan and obtained a job at the Jiji Shimpo newspaper, but quite after only three weeks. In December 1895, at the recommendation of director Nakamigawa Hirojirō Ikeda began working at Mitsui Bank. After being assigned to the Osaka branch, he was made director of the bank’s Ashikaga branch, following which he worked on reform proposals for the underwriting of municipal bonds for Osaka, and for deposit agreements between banks. He was then sent back to the United States in 1898 to study banking modernization. After his return in 1900, he rose rapidly through the hierarchy within the Mitsui zaibatsu. In 1904, he married the eldest daughter of managing director Nakamigawa Hirojirō. He helped establish Mitsui Bank as a stock company in 1911, of which he became a director and was appointed managing director in 1919. After the Showa Financial Crisis of 1927, Ikeda came under criticism when it was discovered that his precipitous withdrawal of funds from the overextended Bank of Taiwan in order to protect Mitsui assets was one of the primary causes for the collapse of the Bank of Taiwan, the second-tier zaibatsu Suzuki Shoten, and the subsequent financial panic. Ikeda became de facto head of the Mitsui zaibatsu in 1932. He was able to depose the Mitsui family from the senior management of the zaibatsu and from the leadership of key group companies, which he took public by offering stock on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. He was also influential in donations to numerous charity and social projects. Ikeda also implemented a retirement system within Mitsui set at the age of 70, at which point he also retired. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ikeda Shigeaki」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|