Ginjiro Fujiwara

Image: Keio Institute for Fukuzawa Studies

Ginjiro Fujiwara is known as a figure who was active in various fields, including politics and education, as well as the business world. His achievements include "striving to rebuild the Mitsui Zaibatsu," "serving as a Minister of State," "becoming the greatest paper king of his time," "founding the Fujiwara Institute of Technology," and "donating the college to Keio University."

As a student of Yukichi Fukuzawa, Fujiwara directly received his teachings and words. It goes without saying that until he passed away at the age of 90 in 1960, Yukichi Fukuzawa's teachings were a great source of support and influence for him.

Fujiwara was born in 1869 as the youngest of three sons and two daughters of Mohei Fujiwara, a large landowner in Amori Hirashiba, Nagano Prefecture. Regarding his childhood, Fujiwara himself stated in his book ("The Words of Yukichi Fukuzawa"), "It was a very quiet and peaceful life, and I grew up thinking that as long as humans do not live in luxury, they will never have trouble making a living." However, after entering society, Fujiwara encountered many hardships that were far from the dreams he had as a boy, but he overcame those hardships and turned those experiences into strength.

A very diligent student since childhood, Fujiwara told his father that he wanted to study at a school in Tokyo, and permission was finally granted on the condition that he become a doctor. However, when he went to Tokyo and visited Umeshiro Suzuki, a senior from his hometown, he was encouraged to enter Keio University, where Suzuki was studying. Zenjiro Akao, also from the same hometown and who would later become a successful trader, also recommended that he enter Keio University. Therefore, Fujiwara gave up on becoming a doctor and decided to enter Keio University. In later years, Suzuki established a non-profit medical clinic for low-income earners and played a pioneering role in the movement to socialize medical care.

After graduating from the Juku, Fujiwara took a job as editor-in-chief at the Matsue Nippo in Shimane Prefecture in 1890, on the recommendation of Kinsuke Ito of the Jiji Shinpo. However, the management situation was disastrous, and by 1893, he was forced to also serve as president. In contrast to his earlier recollections, he later said, "I was poignantly reminded from the bottom of my heart that nothing in the world is as painful and difficult as poverty. The world is by no means as easygoing or sweet as I thought when I was a child. The experience and self-reflection at this time became a truly good medicine for my life."

In 1895, Fujiwara moved to Mitsui Bank. Mitsui Bank was in a period where restructuring was necessary. Hikojiro Nakamigawa, a nephew of Yukichi Fukuzawa, was tasked with reforming Mitsui Bank, which was in a management crisis, and in doing so, he invited many people from the Juku. The invited members included Eiji Asabuki and Seihin Ikeda, who have already been introduced in this column, as well as Raita Fujiyama and Ohsuke Hibi, who later became prominent figures in the business world. Fujiwara was also invited as one of them.

It is said that the person who reached out to Fujiwara was Umeshiro Suzuki, the same person from his hometown who had encouraged him to enter Keio. Fujiwara left the Matsue Nippo and joined Mitsui Bank, where he gained experience in all aspects of banking for one year at the Otsu branch in Shiga. Then, as the head of the Fukagawa branch in Tokyo, he expanded the bank by coming up with various new ideas.

Due to this performance, Fujiwara was entrusted with a new major task. In 1897, Fujiwara became the manager of the Tomioka Silk Mill, where he worked to resolve the dissatisfaction of the mill workers, eliminate inequality, and rebuild the management. Furthermore, in 1911, he became the managing director of Oji Paper and set about restructuring its failing management. Having overcome management crises through various reforms even in many difficult situations, Fujiwara realized the merger of three companies—Oji Paper, Fuji Paper, and Karafuto Kogyo—in 1933. Oji Paper became a giant paper-making enterprise occupying the majority of paper and pulp production in Japan. Fujiwara achieved the reconstruction as the president of this new Oji Paper, was called the "Paper King," and established an unshakeable position as a manager.

At the end of 1938, Fujiwara stepped down as president of Oji Paper. Fujiwara, who had become a member of the House of Peers in 1929, went on to serve as Minister of Commerce and Industry in the Yonai Cabinet, Minister of State in the Tojo Cabinet, and Minister of Munitions in the Koiso Cabinet to rebuild economic policy.

On the other hand, Fujiwara established the Fujiwara Institute of Technology in 1939, aiming to create an educational institution for human resource development. It is said that Fujiwara donated most of his private fortune for the establishment of the university. Fujiwara stated the reason as follows:

"I have turned seventy, the merger of the three companies has been completed without a hitch, and I have personally taken responsibility for settling the massive debt of 300 million yen that Oji Paper carried due to the merger. Since then, Oji's management has progressed smoothly, the shareholders are happy, and the paper industry has stabilized. It may sound strange coming from me, but I have achieved success in the business world. From now on, I have long wished to devote all my strength to another field that will be useful to the nation.", "I have no children. Even if I leave a fortune, there is no joy in deciding who to give it to. (Omitted) When I visited the United States a few years ago, I felt envious to see that businessmen there donated their fortunes to create magnificent universities, and even after they passed away, their intentions remained in the world and contributed to American culture. (Omitted) I decided that I too would throw away my entire fortune to establish an institute of technology and contribute to Japan's industrial world.", "(Ginjiro Fujiwara's Eighty-Year Reminiscence)"

This Fujiwara Institute of Technology is today's Faculty of Science and Technology of the Juku. Tomoo Maki, who was a Vice-President at the time, recalls the spring of the year before the opening as follows:

"I remember the offer at that time was as follows: 'I am over seventy, and as my future work, I will establish an institution with my own funds and, at an appropriate time, donate it entirely to Keio University. Accordingly, I would like to ask Dr. Koizumi to accept the position of president.'", ("Around the Time of the Founding of Fujiwara Institute of Technology," Mita-hyoron (official monthly journal published by Keio University Press), July 1960 issue).

At that time, the opening of a faculty of engineering was a pending issue within Keio. Based on this offer and the premise that it would eventually become the Faculty of Engineering of the Juku, Fujiwara and Koizumi held many meetings. Furthermore, they coordinated the opinions of Fujiwara and the first Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Toyotaro Tanimura. There were times when opinions clashed between Fujiwara, who had gained experience in the real world and was influenced by overseas inspections, and Tanimura, who emphasized basic education. Ultimately, the following three points were adopted as the educational policy: "Engineering education with an emphasis on foundations," "Liberal arts education aiming for the establishment of humanity," and "Language education useful for international exchange."

Regarding this, it is well known that while Fujiwara was thinking of engineering education that would be immediately useful, Tanimura and others were concerned that education that is immediately useful would quickly become useless. However, because of this, there is a tendency for Fujiwara's ideals to be trivialized.

Fujiwara spoke as follows in the special feature on the opening of the school in Mita-hyoron (official monthly journal published by Keio University Press):

"For engineers (working in factories), knowledge and talent in factory management are greatly necessary. There is no technology apart from economy. (Omitted) I therefore thought that economic knowledge should be injected into Japanese engineers. (Omitted) On the other hand, the heads of Japanese administrators have too little technical knowledge. (Omitted) Just as I recommend that engineers have economic knowledge, I would like to advise the administrative side to absorb technical knowledge.", ("The Ideals of Fujiwara Institute of Technology")

This is indeed a modern perspective. Fujiwara energetically inspected and compared factories and engineering education in Japan and overseas. He noted that in the United States, educational institutions were not just for learning engineering technology, but were conscious of how to utilize what was learned in the real world. Fujiwara had discovered from his overseas inspections, the existence of Yukichi Fukuzawa, and his own experience that from now on, success would come to those who did not end as engineers with a single role, but who studied multiple academic fields and combined those talents, being both engineers and managers.

On July 8, 1939, the first entrance ceremony of the Fujiwara Institute of Technology was held at the Hiyoshi Campus. In his address, Fujiwara expressed his joy, saying, "I have gained 200 wonderful first grandchildren like you," and spoke of the heavy responsibility of raising them well.

After that, government control over school education in Japan strengthened during the war. Therefore, so as not to miss the opportunity, it was decided in 1943 to transfer the Fujiwara Institute of Technology to Keio University, and in the following year, 1944, it became the "Keio University Faculty of Engineering."

At this time, Fujiwara made several requests for future stable development. Among them was the following additional clause:

"Fujiwara has no children and wishes to look after the students or graduates of the Institute of Technology as if they were his own children, making them promising human resources for society, and he considers this the joy of his remaining years; therefore, Keio University shall also acknowledge this in advance."

This reflects Fujiwara's deep feelings for the students. In fact, it is said that whenever he met students of the Faculty of Engineering, he would say with a warm smile, "These are my grandchildren, my many grandchildren."

In 1955, Fujiwara published "The Words of Yukichi Fukuzawa." Based on his own experience of learning directly from Yukichi Fukuzawa and his own life experience, he selected Yukichi Fukuzawa's words and teachings and added commentary. To use Fujiwara's words, it was the popularization of "Yukichi Fukuzawa." In the same book, Fujiwara states, "In my sixty years of business life, I encountered many difficult and major problems, but I always recalled these words of Yukichi Fukuzawa and was generally able to handle them without error."

Let us introduce a few from the same book.

"The teacher was an extremely enthusiastic educator, but he greatly disliked students being glued to their desks, becoming bookworms, or simply swallowing the teacher's sermons whole."

"Yukichi Fukuzawa was neither an engineer nor a technician. However, Yukichi Fukuzawa was one of the very first pioneers who worked to lead the Japanese people into new fields of engineering and technology, and he would surely be greatly satisfied that Japanese industry has been able to show its achievements to the world through those who followed."

Fujiwara established the Fujiwara Foundation of Science on his 90th birthday and established the Fujiwara Prize, which continues to contribute to the promotion of science and technology today. Fujiwara passed away at the age of 90, but "The Words of Yukichi Fukuzawa" was reprinted in 2008 under the title "Yukichi Fukuzawa: Words for Life." This book, backed by the actual feelings of Fujiwara, who studied under Yukichi Fukuzawa at the Juku and lived his life while always being conscious of Yukichi Fukuzawa's words along with fellow students close to him, will surely provide many suggestions to readers.