Sone Arasuke

In this Japanese name, the surname is Sone.

Senior Second Rank Viscount Sone Arasuke
曾禰 荒助
Viscount Sone Arasuke
Resident-General of Korea
In office 14 June 1909 – 30 May 1910
Monarch	Meiji
Preceded by	Itō Hirobumi
Succeeded by	Terauchi Masatake
Ministerial offices Minister of Finance In office 2 June 1901 – 7 January 1906 Prime Minister Katsura Tarō Preceded by Saionji Kinmochi (acting) Succeeded by Sakatani Yoshirō Minister of Communications In office 17 July 1903 – 22 September 1903 Prime Minister Katsura Tarō Preceded by Yoshikawa Akimasa Succeeded by Ōura Kanetake Minister for Foreign Affairs In office 3 June 1901 – 21 September 1901 Prime Minister Katsura Tarō Preceded by Katō Takaaki Succeeded by Komura Jutarō Minister of Agriculture and Commerce In office 8 November 1898 – 19 October 1900 Prime Minister Yamagata Aritomo Preceded by Ōishi Masami Succeeded by Hayashi Yūzō Minister of Justice In office 12 January 1898 – 30 June 1898 Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi Preceded by Kiyoura Keigo Succeeded by Gitetsu Ohigashi
Vice Speaker of the House of Representatives
In office 3 May 1892 – 31 August 1893
Speaker	Hoshi Tōru
Preceded by	Tsuda Mamichi
Succeeded by	Kusumoto Masataka
Member of the Privy Council
In office 1906–1910
Monarch	Meiji
Member of the House of Peers
In office 26 September 1900 – 17 May 1906 Nominated by the Emperor
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 6 May 1892 – 30 December 1893
Preceded by	Horie Yoshisuke
Succeeded by	Ogura Jinkichi
Constituency	Yamaguchi 4th
Personal details
Born	(1849-02-20)20 February 1849 Hagi, Chōshū, Japan
Died	13 September 1910(1910-09-13) (aged 61) Katase, Kanagawa, Japan
Occupation	Politician, Diplomat, Cabinet Minister

Viscount Sone Arasuke (曾禰 荒助; February 20, 1849 – September 13, 1910) was a Japanese politician, diplomat, cabinet minister, and second Japanese Resident-General of Korea.

Biography

Sone was born in Nagato Province in Chōshū Domain (present-day Yamaguchi prefecture, his adopted father was a samurai from Hagi. He fought on the imperial side in the Boshin War.

After the Meiji Restoration, Sone was sent to France for studies, and on his return to Japan served in the War Ministry. Later, he served as director of the Cabinet Gazette Bureau, Secretary of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau and other posts, in 1890 he became the first Chief Secretary of the House of Representatives of the first session of the Diet of Japan.

Sone was elected to the House of Representatives in the 1892 Japanese general election, and served as Vice-Speaker of the House in the same year. In 1893, he became Japanese ambassador to France and negotiated the revision of the unequal treaties between France and Japan.

He served successively in a number of cabinet posts: Minister of Justice in the third Itō administration, Agriculture and Commerce Minister in the second Yamagata administration, Finance Minister in the first Katsura administration and other posts.

During the Russo-Japanese War with the help of Takahashi Korekiyo and others, he secured the foreign loans necessary to finance the expenses of the war. In 1900, Emperor Meiji nominated him to the House of Peers. In 1902, he was made a baron (danshaku) under the kazoku peerage system. He became a Privy Councillor in 1906, and elevated in status to viscount (shishaku) the following year.

Sone was appointed as Vice Resident-General of the Japanese administration in Korea in 1907, and Resident-General of Korea in 1909, replacing Itō Hirobumi. One of his major actions in Korea was to install a peninsula-wide telephone network, linking government offices, police stations and military installations throughout Korea. Sone was opposed to the Japanese annexation of Korea, but was forced to resign from his post in May 1910 due to illness and died a few months later.

References

• Beasley, W.G. Japanese Imperialism 1894-1945. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-822168-1
• Duus, Peter. The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895-1910 (Twentieth-Century Japan - the Emergence of a World Power. University of California Press (1998). ISBN 0-520-21361-0.
• Keane, Donald. Emperor Of Japan: Meiji And His World, 1852-1912. Columbia University Press (2005). ISBN 0-231-12341-8
• Kowner, Rotem (2006). Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War. The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-4927-5.
• Sims, Richard. French Policy Towards the Bakufu and Meiji Japan 1854-1894. RoutledgeCurzon (1998). ISBN 1-873410-61-1

External links

• National Diet Library Bio and Photo