Ito Hirobumi – Japan's First Prime Minister and Father of the Meiji Constitution

A brilliant and influential statesman, Ito Hirobumi (1841-1909) was the first prime minister of Japan's modern state. This biography focuses especially on Ito's thought and vision for Japan's modernisation. It outlines Ito's life: the son of a poor farmer, who studyed in England and returned convinced that the only viable path for Japan was nation building by introducing Western civilisation. From then on, Ito became a powerful force behind the construction of the reformed Japanese state, establishing the 1889 Meiji Constitution and founding a new type of constitutional party which became the Liberal Democratic Party, dominating post-war Japanese politics.