Shigeru Yoshida

Shigeru Yoshida
吉田 茂
Official portrait, 1946
Prime Minister of Japan
In office 15 October 1948 – 10 December 1954
Monarch	Hirohito
Governor	Douglas MacArthur Matthew Ridgway
Deputy	Jōji Hayashi [jp] Taketora Ogata
Preceded by	Hitoshi Ashida
Succeeded by	Ichirō Hatoyama
In office 22 May 1946 – 24 May 1947
Monarch	Hirohito
Governor	Douglas MacArthur
Deputy	Kijūrō Shidehara
Preceded by	Kijūrō Shidehara
Succeeded by	Tetsu Katayama
Member of the House of Representatives for Kochi At-large District
In office 26 April 1947 – 23 October 1963
Member of the House of Peers
In office 19 December 1945 – 3 May 1947
Personal details
Born	(1878-09-22)22 September 1878 Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan
Died	20 October 1967(1967-10-20) (aged 89) Tokyo, Japan
Political party	Liberal Democratic (1955–1967)
Other political affiliations	Liberal (1945–1948) Democratic Liberal (1948–1950) Liberal (1950–1955)
Spouse	Yukiko Makino ​ ​ (m. 1909; died 1941)​
Children	4, including Ken'ichi
Relatives	Tarō Asō (grandson) Nobuko, Princess Tomohito of Mikasa (granddaughter)
Alma mater	University of Tokyo
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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 from 1948 to 1954, serving through most of the American occupation following the Pacific War. He played a significant part in determining the course for post-war Japan by forging a strong relationship with the United States and pursuing economic recovery.

Born to a former samurai family, Yoshida joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a young man. After spending most of his career as a diplomat in China, he served from 1928 to 1930 as vice minister of foreign affairs under Giichi Tanaka Cabinet and the Hamaguchi Cabinet. He was then ambassador to Italy until 1932, after which he had no posting for several years. Yoshida was considered for foreign minister in the cabinet of Kōki Hirota, but was opposed by the Army. Instead he was appointed ambassador to Britain, serving from 1936 to 1939. Yoshida tried to deescalate tensions with Britain and the United States before the outbreak of the Pacific War. During the war he was retired, but was nevertheless involved in attempts to seek peace with the Allied powers.

Under the American occupation after the war, Yoshida served as foreign minister in the Higashikuni Cabinet and the Shidehara Cabinet. Yoshida became prime minister in 1946, after Ichirō Hatoyama, the leader of the largest party after the first post-war election, was purged by the occupation on the verge of becoming prime minister and endorsed Yoshida as his replacement. Yoshida oversaw the adoption of the Constitution of Japan before losing office after the election of 1947. He returned to the premiership in 1948. He negotiated the Treaty of San Francisco, which ended the occupation and saw the restoration of sovereignty to Japan. Yoshida pursued a strategy of concentrating on economic reconstruction while relying on 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 Ichirō Hatoyama, who had 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 Sato, who served 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.