Yukio Ozaki

Image: After resigning as Minister of Education in 1899 (Keio University Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies)

Yukio Ozaki is known as the "God of Constitutional Government." He was a rare figure who won 25 consecutive general elections and remained a member of the House of Representatives for 63 years until the year before his death. How did the "God of Constitutional Government" view Fukuzawa?

Yukio Ozaki was born on December 24, 1858 (November 20, Ansei 5), in Matano Village, Tsukui District, Sagami Province (now Midori-ku, Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture) as the eldest son of his father, Yukimasa, and mother, Sadako. His childhood name was Hikotaro. His father was born into a family of Kampo doctors and married into the Ozaki family; during the Bakumatsu and Restoration periods, he joined Taisuke Itagaki's unit in the Aizu Expedition. The family was poor, and it is said that he lived a lonely life with just his mother until his younger brother and sister were born. Yukio was sickly from childhood, suffering particularly from severe headaches. His mother worried and did everything she could to make him healthy. He had a timid personality and hated interference from others. For some reason, he had a nature that made people dislike him—strangers would throw stones or shout insults at him—and he was called a "poseur" until he reached his 40s, when he finally stopped caring.

In 1869, Yukio went to Tokyo with his mother. He first studied under Ryosuke Yasuoka, a local official served by his father, and then attended the Hirata Juku run by Kanetane, the son of the Kokugaku scholar Atsutane Hirata. Later, he studied English at an English school in Takasaki, where his father had been transferred. In 1874, when Taisuke Itagaki and others submitted a petition for the establishment of a popularly elected assembly, Yukio was struck by a feeling "as if his whole body had been hit by electricity" and developed an ambition for politics. After spending some time in Watarai Prefecture (now Mie Prefecture) due to his father's transfer, his father was further assigned to Kumamoto. At this time, Yukio, disliking his parents' interference, headed to Tokyo with his younger brother, Yukitaka.

In May 1874, the brothers entered Keio University. Yukio was extremely afraid of being laughed at for his lack of study, so he decided to lead a "silent life," never speaking unless necessary while at school. Because he started from the lowest class alongside his brother, who was eight years younger, he understood things much faster than those around him and was promoted rapidly. Consequently, he stopped speaking to others out of a sense of superiority and troubled his teachers with difficult questions. Recognizing his academic ability, the teachers promoted him to the highest class in less than a year. He also caused problems within the school by taking up issues of public morals and rebelling against the Jukukan-kyoku (Keio Corporate Administration).

On one occasion, when asked to submit an essay, Ozaki submitted "Gakusha Jiritsu-ron" (On the Independence of Scholars), in which he criticized the trend of talented young people aiming to become government officials and argued that they should live independently. The returned essay bore the evaluation: "The argument is very good, but it is regrettable that there is no one to put it into practice." Reacting against this, Ozaki resubmitted an essay arguing that he intended to practice it himself. He decided to leave the school and start a dyeing business to achieve independence; as preparation, he entered the Kobu Daigakko (Imperial College of Engineering, later the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Tokyo). It is said that Shaw, an English teacher at Keio who taught him English, introduced him because he was a close friend of Dyer at the Imperial College of Engineering.

Due to the aforementioned circumstances, Ozaki was only enrolled at Keio for a year and a half. Furthermore, at that time, Fukuzawa only gave speeches to the entire student body on the principles of learning and did not provide direct instruction, so they had no contact during his enrollment.

Later, during his time at the Imperial College of Engineering, he grew tired of his studies. When he had Fukuzawa read an essay he wrote during class titled "Tosa-ron," which criticized the clan bureaucracy, Fukuzawa reportedly said, "If you write things like this, you'll be tied up." Eventually, the essay was submitted to the "Akebono Shimbun" and was well-received. Furthermore, during a period when he had dropped out of the Imperial College of Engineering and was mainly submitting articles to newspapers and translating books, he once showed a book he had written to Fukuzawa. At that time, Fukuzawa, while trimming his nose hair with tweezers, looked at Ozaki's face askance and asked, "Who do you intend to have read your writing?" When Ozaki replied, "For the general public of intellectuals," Fukuzawa said, "Fool! Write as if you are showing it to monkeys! I always write as if I'm showing it to monkeys, and that is just right for the world," and laughed in a way that drew people in. Ozaki, repelled by Fukuzawa's attitude, avoided visiting him thereafter (Ozaki Gakudo Zenshu, Vol. 11).

Later, in 1879, Fukuzawa invited him to become the editor-in-chief of the Niigata Shimbun. Ozaki headed to Niigata without hesitation. At this time, Fukuzawa advised him on the mindset of a journalist: "You must not only write for the newspaper but also hold public speaking events to lead the public through both eyes and ears. Make that your vocation." This may have been what created the later orator Ozaki. In addition, Fukuzawa advised him on the dissemination of commercial ideas and the guidance of the prefectural assembly; Ozaki followed this by establishing the Hokuetsu Kosho-kai as a business organization and working hard to open the prefectural assembly. While serving as a secretary at the assembly, he showed behavior that went beyond guidance, such as ordering the chairman to adjourn and writing evaluations in the minutes like "This foolish argument is unbearable to hear."

In his youth, Ozaki took a rebellious attitude toward teachers and adults around him, including Fukuzawa, and did not try to understand Fukuzawa. However, after achieving success, he reflected on this and evaluated Fukuzawa very highly. For Ozaki, Fukuzawa was "the greatest person born around the time of the First Restoration," and he even wrote that "no one stands to the right of the master" (Ozaki Gakudo Zenshu, Vol. 12). However, he also viewed him as a "hypocrite of vice" (giakusha), someone who dared to say or show things that would be criticized by the public. For example, although he usually said, "Anyone who gives money to others without reason is a fool," he did not hesitate to provide financial assistance to those in trouble.

Regarding Ozaki as well, Fukuzawa worried about his wife and children, saying that while politics is important, life is also important; feeling sorry for them, he once gave 50 yen at the end of the year. Later, when Ozaki was expelled under the Peace Preservation Ordinance and studied in Europe and America, Fukuzawa looked after Ozaki's family, inviting them to a garden party at his home. When a Keio University alumni living in the U.S. invited Ozaki to a Japanese association and reported the event to the "Jiji Shinpo," Fukuzawa was very pleased upon reading the article and sent a letter of thanks (Biography of Fukuzawa Yukichi, Vol. 4).

Furthermore, in Ozaki's view, Fukuzawa excelled at seeing through people's character. For example, when a student who was slow in studying and understanding things consulted him about a career path, Fukuzawa recommended becoming a dentist. Since it was an era when there were no other dentists, the student became very prosperous and successful.

Ozaki's appointment as editor-in-chief of the Niigata Shimbun was also due to Fukuzawa's recommendation, as he recognized Ozaki's writing talent as a successor to Shuhide Furuto (a Keio graduate) who had died suddenly of cholera. Fukuzawa had informed the owner, Chozo Suzuki, in detail about Ozaki's characteristics and how to treat him.

Later, at the invitation of Fumio Yano, who had read Ozaki's book "Shobu-ron" from his Niigata days, he was appointed as a junior secretary at the Statistics Bureau in 1881. However, when Shigenobu Okuma resigned as a councilor in the Political Crisis of 1881, Ozaki also resigned along with Yano and others of the Okuma/Keio faction. After that, he became a reporter for the "Yubin Hochi Shimbun" and participated in the formation of the Rikken Kaishinto (Constitutional Reform Party). In the Daido Danketsu movement, he played a central role in linking the Reform Party and Liberal Party factions, but due to his outspokenness, he was expelled from Tokyo for three years under the Peace Preservation Ordinance, so he went to study in Europe and America. Ozaki, who did not expect to be a target of expulsion, changed his pen name from "Gakudo" (Study Hall) to "Gakudo" (Startled Hall) out of shock, and later to "Gakudo" (Cackling Hall).

In the first general election for the House of Representatives in 1890, he was elected from a constituency in Mie, and thereafter achieved 25 consecutive victories. Mie was where he spent his youth and where his father had many acquaintances, leading to the formation of a strong support base that campaigned enthusiastically even when Yukio was absent. In 1896, he became a counselor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the second Matsukata Cabinet (Matsukuma Cabinet) in which Okuma joined the cabinet, and in 1898, he became Minister of Education in the first Okuma Cabinet (Wai-ban Cabinet). However, he resigned to take responsibility for the "Republican Speech" incident, and the cabinet also fell. In 1900, he joined the Rikken Seiyukai formed by Hirobumi Ito, and the following year, as floor leader, he attacked the first Katsura Cabinet. In 1903, he left the Seiyukai after Ito compromised with the government and was recommended for and appointed as Mayor of Tokyo. It is well known that during his tenure, he gifted cherry tree saplings to Washington, D.C.

In 1904, his wife Shigeko, whom he married during his Niigata days, passed away. The following year, he remarried Theodora (Japanese name: Eiko), the daughter of legal bureaucrat Saburo Ozaki. Fukuzawa had sympathized with Theodora's circumstances and hired her as an English teacher at the Yochisha, and the wife of Shaw, the English teacher who taught Ozaki, had also looked after her. The two met because a letter addressed to Theodora was mistakenly delivered to the home of Yukio Ozaki, who shared the same surname, and Yukio delivered it to her.

Thereafter, he was active in the movement to protect constitutional government and became Minister of Justice in the second Okuma Cabinet in 1914. He joined the formation of the Kenseikai and became its chief executive. Although active in the universal suffrage movement, he was expelled for opposing the Kenseikai's proposal for the Universal Suffrage Law, and thereafter remained an independent. In 1942, he criticized the Yokusan (Imperial Rule Assistance) election and was elected without recommendation. After the defeat in the war, he began a movement aiming for the construction of a world federation. In 1953, he lost an election for the first time in the 26th general election. While recuperating from illness, Keio students visited him and encouraged him by singing the Juku-ka, and it is said that Ozaki remained in good spirits throughout (Gakudo Yukio Ozaki). He passed away on October 6 of the following year, 1954, at Fuunkaku in Zushi (aged 95).

Movements to honor Ozaki continued even after his death. In 1960, the Ozaki Memorial Hall was built in Nagatacho and donated to the House of Representatives. Later, the hall became the Museum of Constitutional Government, which it remains today. There are Ozaki Gakudo Memorial Museums in Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Ise City, Mie Prefecture, with which he had ties. Additionally, the Western-style house Ozaki built in Azabu for his wife Theodora was moved to Gotokuji, Setagaya-ku, and later rented out as an apartment. In recent years, there has been talk of demolishing the house, sparking a preservation movement.