Nomura Yasushi

Viscount Nomura Yasushi (野村 靖, Nomura Yasushi) was a Japanese bureaucrat, statesman, and cabinet minister during the Meiji period. He was born on 10 September 1842 and died on 24 January 1909.

Nomura was born in Hagi, within the Chōshū Domain, which is present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture. He was the second son of a low-ranked ashigaru, a class of foot soldiers in the samurai hierarchy. During his youth, he studied at Yoshida Shōin's Shokansonjuku academy. While at the academy, he became involved in political activism, supporting the Sonnō jōi movement, which opposed the Tokugawa shogunate and aimed to expel foreigners from Japan.

He participated in a failed assassination attempt against Rōjū Manabe Akikatsu and was involved in the burning of the British legation in Edo (now Tokyo) in 1862. Nomura also fought as part of the Chōshū armies against the Tokugawa forces during the Second Chōshū expedition.

Following the Meiji Restoration, Nomura moved to Tokyo and entered government service. In 1871, he was appointed as a member of the Iwakura Mission, a diplomatic journey that took him to the United States, Great Britain, and other European countries. Upon returning to Japan, he was appointed governor of Kanagawa Prefecture, where he was recognized for efforts to reduce government expenditures.

In 1887, Nomura was ennobled with the kazoku peerage title of shishaku, equivalent to viscount. The following year, he was appointed to the Privy Council, a body of advisors to the Emperor. In 1891, he served as Japan's ambassador to France.

Nomura became Home Minister in 1894, serving in the cabinet of Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi's second administration. During his tenure, territorial boundaries were adjusted, with the three Tama districts—formerly part of Kanagawa Prefecture—being incorporated into Tokyo Prefecture. He returned to the cabinet as Minister of Communications in 1896 under Prime Minister Matsukata Masayoshi's second administration. During this period, he sought to reduce the influence of the Mitsubishi zaibatsu over Japanese shipping, which had been favored by Maejima Hisoka.

Nomura died in 1909. His burial site is located at the Shōin Jinja, a Shinto shrine in Setagaya, Tokyo, near the grave of Yoshida Shōin, his former teacher and political mentor.

References for his biography include works by Donald Keene, Louis Frederick, and Richard Sims, with additional information available through the National Diet Library.