Yukio Ozaki

Ozaki Yukio (Japanese尾崎 行 雄, born December 24, 1858 in Matano, Sagami Province (now Sagamihara ); † October 6, 1954 ) was a Japanese politician and is considered one of the fathers of the Japanese parliamentary democracy.

Ozaki Yukio was born in 1858 in the province of Sagami. 1874 to 1876 he attended Keio Gijuku, a private school founded by Yukichi Fukuzawa, which later became the Keio University should emerge. On the recommendation Fukuzawas he was chief editor of the 1879 Niigata Shimbun, a local newspaper in Niigata Prefecture. During his stay in the prefecture Ozaki helped build the local prefecture Parliament.

1885 Ozaki was elected to the Parliament of the Tokyo prefecture, the prefecture had 1887 but left because his name was among those of the 600 political activists who were exiled during the maintenance of public order for three years from the capital. Ozaki traveled in the period following the United States and the United Kingdom. In 1889 he finally returned to Japan. In 1890 he was elected to the Japanese House of Commons, which now met for the first time after the entry into force of the Meiji Constitution. His local seat he held for the next 63 years. In 1898, Ozaki education minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Okuma. In its second cabinet, he was Minister of Justice from 1914 to 1916.

1903 Ozaki was appointed mayor of Tokyo. During his tenure, which lasted until 1912, he gave the city of Washington, DC together with Dr. Takamine Jokichi 3000 Japanese flowering cherries, the parking can be admired today in West Potomac.

In the following years Ozaki championed especially against the growing influence of the military and the threat of militarization. During the Manchurian crisis in 1931, he remained at the invitation of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the United States. As a result of the invasion of Japanese troops in Manchuria Ozaki traveled on to Europe and returned in 1933 back to Japan.

After the Second World War, he campaigned for a relaxation of US- Japanese relations. In 1953 he was made ​​an honorary member of the Japanese Parliament and honorary citizen of Tokyo.

Ozaki died on 6 October 1954 at the age of 95 years. In 1960 it was erected in honor of the Ozaki Memorial Hall near the Japanese parliament building.