The Most Famous

POLITICIANS from Japan

This page contains a list of the greatest Japanese Politicians. The pantheon dataset contains 19,576 Politicians, 356 of which were born in Japan. This makes Japan the birth place of the 10th most number of Politicians behind Turkey, and China.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Japanese Politicians of all time. This list of famous Japanese Politicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Japanese Politicians.

1. Hirohito (1901 - 1989)

With an HPI of 81.58, Hirohito is the most famous Japanese Politician. His biography has been translated into 129 different languages on wikipedia.

Hirohito (29 April 1901 – 7 January 1989), posthumously honored as Emperor Shōwa, was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 1926 until his death in 1989. He was the longest-reigning Japanese emperor and one of the world's longest-reigning monarchs. As emperor during the Shōwa era, Hirohito oversaw the rise of Japanese militarism, Japan's expansionism in Asia, the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II, and the postwar Japanese economic miracle. Hirohito was the first child of Crown Prince Yoshihito and Crown Princess Sadako, later Emperor Taishō and Empress Teimei. After his father's accession to the throne in 1912, Hirohito was proclaimed crown prince and heir apparent in 1916. In 1921, he made an official visit to Great Britain and Western Europe in the first overseas visit by a member of the Japanese royal family. Owing to his father's ill health, Hirohito became his regent that year. In 1924, he married Princess Nagako Kuni, with whom he had seven children. Upon his father’s death in 1926, Hirohito became emperor, serving as head of state during the 1930s as the military increasingly dominated Japanese politics. When Japan's Kwantung Army staged the Mukden incident as a pretext for its invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Hirohito made no objection. Following the onset of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, tensions steadily grew between Japan and the United States. Once Hirohito formally sanctioned his government's decision to go to war against the U.S. and its allies on 1 December 1941, the Pacific War began one week later with a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as well as on other U.S. and British colonies in the region. After atomic bombs were dropped on Japan and the Soviet Union invaded Japanese-occupied Manchuria, Hirohito called upon his country's forces to surrender in a radio broadcast on 15 August 1945. The extent of his involvement in military decision-making and wartime culpability remain subjects of historical debate. Following the surrender of Japan, Emperor Hirohito was not prosecuted for war crimes at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal even though the Japanese had waged war in his name. The head of the Allied occupation of the country, Douglas MacArthur, believed that a cooperative emperor would facilitate a peaceful occupation and other U.S. postwar objectives. MacArthur therefore excluded any evidence from the tribunal which could have incriminated Hirohito or other members of the royal family. In 1946, Hirohito was pressured by the Allies into renouncing his divinity. Under Japan's new constitution drafted by U.S. officials, his role as emperor was redefined in 1947 as "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people". He died in 1989, and was succeeded as emperor by his eldest son, Akihito.

2. Emperor Meiji (1852 - 1912)

With an HPI of 78.09, Emperor Meiji is the 2nd most famous Japanese Politician. His biography has been translated into 82 different languages.

Mutsuhito (3 November 1852 – 30 July 1912), posthumously honored as Emperor Meiji, was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 1867 until his death in 1912. His reign is associated with the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which ended the Tokugawa shogunate and began rapid changes that transformed Japan from an isolationist, feudal state to an industrialized world power. Emperor Meiji was the first monarch of the Empire of Japan, and presided over the Meiji era. At the time of Mutsuhito's birth, Japan was a feudal and pre-industrial country dominated by the isolationist Tokugawa shogunate and the daimyō subject to it, who ruled over Japan's 270 decentralized domains. The opening of Japan to the West from 1854 fueled domestic demands for modernization, and when Mutsuhito became emperor after the death of his father Emperor Kōmei in 1867, it triggered the Boshin War, in which samurai (mostly from the Chōshū and Satsuma Domains) defeated the shogunate and restored power in his name. Documents issued during his reign include the Charter Oath of 1868, Meiji Constitution of 1889, Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors of 1882, and Imperial Rescript on Education of 1890, in which he was advised by a group of oligarchs known as the genrō. Other major events include the establishment of the Cabinet in 1885, Privy Council in 1888, Imperial Diet in 1890, and military victories over China in the First Sino-Japanese War and over Russia in the Russo-Japanese War. Taiwan and Korea were annexed in 1895 and 1910, respectively. Emperor Meiji died in 1912, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Yoshihito.

3. Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536 - 1598)

With an HPI of 74.83, Toyotomi Hideyoshi is the 3rd most famous Japanese Politician. His biography has been translated into 70 different languages.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣秀吉, 17 March 1537 – 18 September 1598), otherwise known as Kinoshita Tōkichirō (木下藤吉郎) and Hashiba Hideyoshi (羽柴秀吉), was a Japanese samurai and daimyō (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan. Although he came from a peasant background, his immense power earned him the rank and title of Kampaku (関白, Imperial Regent) and Daijō-daijin (太政大臣, Chancellor of the Realm), the highest official position and title in the nobility class. He was the first person in history to become a Kampaku who was not born a noble. He then passed the position and title of Kampaku to his nephew, Toyotomi Hidetsugu. He remained in power as Taikō (太閤), the title of retired Kampaku, until his death. It is believed, but not certain, that the reason he refused or could not obtain the title of shogun (征夷大将軍), the leader of the warrior class, was because he was of peasant origin. Hideyoshi rose from a peasant background as a retainer of the prominent lord Oda Nobunaga to become one of the most powerful men in Japanese history. Hideyoshi succeeded Nobunaga after the Honnō-ji Incident in 1582 and continued Nobunaga's campaign to unite Japan that led to the closing of the Sengoku period. Hideyoshi became the de facto leader of Japan and acquired the prestigious positions of daijō-daijin and kampaku by the mid-1580s. Hideyoshi launched the Japanese invasions of Korea in 1592 to initial success, but eventual military stalemate damaged his prestige before his death in 1598. Hideyoshi's young son and successor Toyotomi Hideyori was displaced by Tokugawa Ieyasu at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 which would lead to the founding of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Hideyoshi's rule covers most of the Azuchi–Momoyama period of Japan, partially named after his castle, Momoyama Castle. Hideyoshi left an influential and lasting legacy in Japan, including Osaka Castle, the Tokugawa class system, the restriction on the possession of weapons to the samurai, and the construction and restoration of many temples, some of which are still visible in Kyoto.

4. Emperor Jimmu (-711 - -585)

With an HPI of 72.93, Emperor Jimmu is the 4th most famous Japanese Politician. His biography has been translated into 59 different languages.

Emperor Jimmu (神武天皇, Jinmu-tennō) was the legendary first emperor of Japan according to the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki. His ascension is traditionally dated as 660 BC. In Japanese mythology, he was a descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu, through her grandson Ninigi, as well as a descendant of the storm god Susanoo. He launched a military expedition from Hyūga near the Seto Inland Sea, captured Yamato, and established this as his center of power. In modern Japan, Emperor Jimmu's legendary ascension is marked as National Foundation Day on February 11. There is no evidence to suggest that Jimmu existed and is regarded by most modern scholars as a legendary figure.

5. Shinzō Abe (1954 - 2022)

With an HPI of 72.35, Shinzō Abe is the 5th most famous Japanese Politician. His biography has been translated into 133 different languages.

Shinzo Abe ( SHIN-zoh AH-bay; Japanese: 安倍晋三, Hepburn: Abe Shinzō, IPA: [abe ɕindzoː]; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as the prime minister of Japan and president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. He was the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history, serving for almost nine years in total. Abe also served as Chief Cabinet Secretary from 2005 to 2006 under Junichiro Koizumi and was briefly the opposition leader in 2012. Abe was born into the prominent Satō–Kishi–Abe family in Tokyo as the grandson of Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. After graduating from Seikei University and briefly attending the University of Southern California, Abe was elected to the Japanese House of Representatives in the 1993 election. Abe was appointed Chief Cabinet Secretary by Prime Minister Koizumi in 2005 before replacing him as prime minister and LDP president the following year. Confirmed by the National Diet, Abe became Japan's youngest post-war prime minister and the first born after World War II. Abe resigned as prime minister a year later due to ulcerative colitis and his party's recent election losses. After recovering, Abe staged an unexpected political comeback by defeating Shigeru Ishiba, the former defense minister, to become LDP president in 2012. Following the LDP's landslide victory in that year's general election, Abe became the first former prime minister to return to office since Shigeru Yoshida in 1948. He led the LDP to further victories in the 2014 and 2017 elections, becoming Japan's longest-serving prime minister. In 2020, Abe again resigned as prime minister, citing a relapse of his colitis, and was succeeded by Yoshihide Suga. Abe was a staunch conservative and associated with the Nippon Kaigi, which holds negationist views on Japanese history, including denying the role of government coercion in the recruitment of comfort women during World War II, a position which caused tensions particularly with South Korea. Under his premiership, Japan–South Korea relations further strained in 2019 over disputes about reparations. Earlier that same year, Abe's government initiated a trade dispute with South Korea after the South Korean Supreme Court ruled that reparations be made by Japanese companies who had benefited from forced labor. Abe was considered a hard-liner with respect to Japan's military policies. In 2007, he initiated the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue during his first tenure as prime minister, aimed at resisting China's rise as a superpower. He advocated for amending Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution to legally codify the status of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF). However, this was never achieved during his lifetime. He enacted military reforms in 2015 that allowed Japan to exercise collective security by allowing JSDF deployments overseas, the passage of which was controversial and met with protests. Economically, Abe attempted to counter Japan's economic stagnation with "Abenomics", with mixed results. He was also credited with reinstating the Trans-Pacific Partnership with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. On 8 July 2022, Abe was assassinated while delivering a campaign speech in Nara two days before the 10 July upper house elections. The suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, who was immediately arrested by Japanese police, confessed to targeting the former prime minister because of Abe's reported ties with the Unification Church. This was the first assassination of a former Japanese prime minister since 1936. A polarizing figure in Japanese politics, Abe was described by supporters as having worked to strengthen Japan's security and international stature, while opponents described his nationalistic policies and negationist views on history as threatening Japanese pacifism and damaging relations with East Asian neighbors, including China and South Korea.

6. Hideki Tojo (1884 - 1948)

With an HPI of 70.97, Hideki Tojo is the 6th most famous Japanese Politician. His biography has been translated into 74 different languages.

Hideki Tojo (東條英機, Tōjō Hideki, pronounced [toːʑoː çideki] ; 30 December 1884 – 23 December 1948) was a Japanese politician and general who served as prime minister of Japan from 1941 to 1944, during World War II. His leadership was marked by widespread state violence perpetrated in the name of Japanese nationalism, and after the war, he was convicted as a war criminal and executed. Tojo's legacy remains firmly intertwined with the Empire of Japan's wars of aggression and numerous atrocities. Born in Tokyo to a military family, Tojo was educated at the Japanese Military Academy and began his career in the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) in 1905. He served as a military attaché in Germany from 1919 to 1922, and rose through the ranks to become a general in 1934. In 1935, he assumed top command of the Kempeitai attached to the Kwantung Army in Manchuria, and was promoted to the Kwantung Army's chief of staff in 1937, leading military operations against the Chinese in the border regions. In 1938, Tojo was recalled to Tokyo following the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War to serve as vice minister of the army, and in 1940 he was appointed minister of the army in the cabinet of Fumimaro Konoe. Tojo emerged as an outspoken advocate for a pre-emptive attack on the United States and its Western allies. On Konoe's resignation, Tojo was appointed prime minister in October 1941. He oversaw Japan's decision to go to war with the Allies, its pre-emptive attack on Pearl Harbor and other U.S. and British possessions, and its ensuing conquest of much of Southeast Asia and the Pacific. During his tenure, Tojo presided over numerous war crimes, including the massacre and starvation of thousands of prisoners of war and millions of Asian civilians. From February 1944, Tojo concurrently served as the army's chief of staff. As the tide of war turned against Japan and after it was defeated at the Battle of Saipan, Tojo resigned as prime minister and chief of staff in July 1944. After Japan's surrender, he was arrested in September 1945 (during which he made a failed suicide attempt), convicted at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, and hanged in December.

7. Sasaki Kojirō (1583 - 1612)

With an HPI of 69.67, Sasaki Kojirō is the 7th most famous Japanese Politician. His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Sasaki Kojirō (佐々木小次郎, also known as Ganryū Kojirō; c. 1585 – April 13, 1612) was a Japanese swordsman who may have lived during the Azuchi–Momoyama and early Edo periods and is known primarily for the story of his duel with Miyamoto Musashi in 1612, where Sasaki was killed. Although suffering from defeat as well as death at the hands of Musashi, he is a revered and respected warrior in Japanese history and culture. Later Miyamoto proclaimed that Sasaki Kojirō was the strongest opponent he faced in his life.

8. Lee Myung-bak (b. 1941)

With an HPI of 69.61, Lee Myung-bak is the 8th most famous Japanese Politician. His biography has been translated into 67 different languages.

Lee Myung-bak (; Korean: 이명박, pronounced [i.mjʌŋ.bak̚]; born 19 December 1941), often referred to by his initials MB, is a South Korean businessman and politician who served as the president of South Korea from 2008 to 2013. Before his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, and the mayor of Seoul from 2002 to 2006. Lee is married to Kim Yoon-ok and has three daughters and one son. His older brother, Lee Sang-deuk, was a South Korean politician. He is a Christian attending Somang Presbyterian Church. Lee is a graduate of Korea University and received an honorary degree from Paris Diderot University in 2011. Lee altered the South Korean government's approach to North Korea, preferring a more hardline strategy in the wake of increased provocation from the North, though he was supportive of regional dialogue with Russia, China and Japan. Under Lee, South Korea increased its visibility and influence in the global scene, resulting in the hosting of the 2010 G-20 Seoul summit. However, significant controversy remains in Korea regarding high-profile government initiatives which have caused some factions to engage in civil opposition and protest against the incumbent government and President Lee's Saenuri Party (formerly the Grand National Party). The reformist faction within the Saenuri Party was at odds with Lee. He ended his five-year term on 24 February 2013, and was succeeded by Park Geun-hye. On 22 March 2018, Lee was arrested on charges of bribery, embezzlement, and tax evasion alleged to have occurred during his presidency. Prosecutors accused Lee of receiving bribes totaling 11 billion won and channeling assets of 35 billion won to an illicit slush fund. Shortly before his arrest, Lee posted a handwritten statement on Facebook denying the charges. Lee's arrest occurred roughly a year after the arrest of former president Park Geun-Hye, who was arrested on charges stemming from the 2016 South Korean political scandal. Lee was convicted on 5 October 2018 and sentenced to 15 years in prison. On 29 October 2020, the Korean Supreme Court upheld a 17-year sentence against Lee given to him by an appellate court. On 27 December 2022, President Yoon Suk-yeol granted Lee a special pardon, cancelling the remaining 15 years of the sentence.

9. Itō Hirobumi (1841 - 1909)

With an HPI of 69.44, Itō Hirobumi is the 9th most famous Japanese Politician. His biography has been translated into 61 different languages.

Prince Itō Hirobumi (伊藤博文, 16 October 1841 – 26 October 1909) was a Japanese politician who served as the first prime minister of Japan from 1885 to 1888, and later from 1892 to 1896, in 1898, and from 1900 to 1901. He was a leading member of the genrō, a group of senior statesmen that dictated policy during the Meiji era. Even out of office as head of government, Itō continued to wield vast influence over Japan's policies as a permanent imperial adviser (genkun) and frequent president of the emperor's Privy Council. A staunch monarchist and leading proponent of Japan's Westernization, Itō favored a large, all-powerful bureaucracy that answered solely to the emperor, and opposed the formation of political parties. Born into a poor farming family in the Chōshū Domain, Itō and his father were adopted into a low-ranking samurai family. He joined the nationalist sonnō jōi movement after the opening of Japan in 1854, and in 1863 was sent to England to study at University College London. After the Shimonoseki campaign of 1864, in which four Western powers bombed Chōshū, he resolved to set Japan on a path of Westernization. After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Itō was appointed the junior councilor for foreign affairs in the new Empire of Japan. In 1870, he traveled to the United States to study Western currency, and in 1871 helped establish Japan's taxation system. He then set off on another overseas trip with the Iwakura Mission to the U.S. and Europe, and upon his return to Japan in 1873, became a full councilor and public works minister. Itō also served as home minister from 1878, and by 1881 he had become the de facto leader of the Meiji oligarchy. After the advent of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement and political parties, in 1881 Itō promised a constitution and national assembly. In 1882, he embarked on a trip to Europe to study its constitutions; his preference was for a Prussian-style one which would retain considerable power for the emperor and limit party involvement in the cabinet. He replaced religious references with those rooted in the Japanese concept of kokutai ("national polity"), which became the constitutional justification for imperial authority. In 1884, Itō reorganized the peerage to fill the seats in the anticipated House of Peers. In 1885, he replaced the Daijō-kan with a cabinet composed of ministry heads, and himself took up the new position of prime minister. When the draft constitution was ready in 1888, Itō established a supra-cabinet Privy Council to discuss and approve it on the emperor's behalf. He resigned as prime minister so he could head this new body. The Meiji Constitution was proclaimed in 1889, and the Imperial Diet was first assembled in 1890. From 1892 to 1896, Itō was again prime minister. During his term, Japan defeated China in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, and he was involved in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which annexed Taiwan to the empire and freed Korea from the Chinese tributary system. During Itō’s third term as prime minister in 1898, his tax policies were opposed by political parties and he soon resigned. In 1900, he started his fourth term and formed his own pro-government party, the Rikken Seiyūkai, but continued to face opposition, and resigned in 1901. After Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, Itō became the resident-general of Korea, a nation which Japan desired to annex. Korea was declared a Japanese protectorate in 1905, and in 1907 Itō obliged its emperor to step down. Itō was made a prince that year and resigned as resident-general in 1909; later that year, he was assassinated while in Manchuria by a Korean nationalist.

10. Emperor Kōmei (1831 - 1867)

With an HPI of 69.38, Emperor Kōmei is the 10th most famous Japanese Politician. His biography has been translated into 48 different languages.

Osahito (22 July 1831 – 30 January 1867), posthumously honored as Emperor Kōmei, was the 121st emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Kōmei's reign spanned the years from 1846 through 1867, corresponding to the final years of the Edo period. During his reign there was much internal turmoil as a result of Japan's first major contact with the United States, which occurred under Commodore Perry in 1853 and 1854, and the subsequent forced re-opening of Japan to western nations, ending a 220-year period of national seclusion. Emperor Kōmei did not care much for anything foreign, and he opposed opening Japan to Western powers. His reign would continue to be dominated by insurrection and partisan conflicts, eventually culminating in the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate shortly after his death and the Meiji Restoration in the beginning of the reign of his son and successor Emperor Meiji.

People

Pantheon has 370 people classified as Japanese politicians born between 711 BC and 1997. Of these 370, 63 (17.03%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Japanese politicians include Lee Myung-bak, Fumio Kishida, and Yoshihide Suga. The most famous deceased Japanese politicians include Hirohito, Emperor Meiji, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. As of April 2024, 15 new Japanese politicians have been added to Pantheon including Tokugawa Mitsukuni, Ōtomo Sōrin, and Nakayama Yoshiko.