Sone Arasuke

Baron Arasuke Sone (曾禰荒助, Sone Arasuke ^?), (20 February 1849 - 13 September 1910) was a Japanese politician and second Japanese Resident-General of Korea.

Born in Chōshū (present-day Yamaguchi prefecture, his adopted father was a samurai of the Hagi Clan. He fought on the imperial side in the Boshin War. He went to France for studies, and then served in the War Ministry. After serving in various government departments, he was elected a member of the House of Representatives in 1892, and served as vice-speaker of the House in the same year. In 1893, he became ambassador to France and negotiated the revision of the unequal treaties.

He served successively posts as Minister of Justice in the third Ito cabinet, Agriculture and Commerce Minister in the second Yamagata cabinet, Finance Minister in the first Katsura cabinet and other posts.

During the Russo-Japanese War, he secured the foreign loans necessary finance the expenses of the war. In 1900, Emperor Meiji nominated him to the House of Peers. He became a Privy Councillor

In 1906 he became the Vice Resident-General of Korea in 1907, and the Resident-General of Korea in 1909.

[edit] References

Beasley, W.G. Japanese Imperialism 1894-1945. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-822168-1
Coox, Alvin D. Nomonhan: Japan Against Russia, 1939. Stanford University Press; Reprint edition (1990). ISBN 0-8047-1835-0
Duus, Peter. The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895-1910 (Twentieth-Century Japan - the Emergence of a World Power. University of California Press (1998). ISBN 0-520-21361-0.
Keane, Donald. Emperor Of Japan: Meiji And His World, 1852-1912. Columbia University Press (2005). ISBN 0-231-12341-8
Sims, Richard. French Policy Towards the Bakufu and Meiji Japan 1854-1894. RoutledgeCurzon (1998). ISBN 1-873410-61-1

Preceded by Ito Hirobumi	Japanese Resident-General in Korea 1909–1910	Succeeded by Masatake Terauchi