Makino Nobuaki

Count Makino Nobuaki (牧野 伸顕, November 24, 1861 – January 25, 1949) was a Japanese statesman, active from the Meiji period through the Pacific War.

Biography

Born to a samurai family in Kagoshima, Satsuma domain (present day Kagoshima Prefecture), Makino was the second son of Ōkubo Toshimichi, but adopted into the Makino family at a very early age.

In 1871, at the age of 11, he accompanied Ōkubo on the Iwakura Mission to the United States as a student, and briefly attended school in Philadelphia. After he returned to Japan, he attended Tokyo Imperial University, but left without graduating to enter the Foreign Ministry. Assigned to the Japanese London Embassy, he made the acquaintance of Itō Hirobumi.

After serving as governors of Fukui Prefecture (1891–1892), Ibaraki Prefecture (1892–1893), Ambassador to the Austria-Hungary Empire and Ambassador to Italy, he served as Minister of Education under the 1st Saionji Cabinet, and as Minister of Agriculture and Commerce under the 2nd Saionji Cabinet. He was also appointed to serve on the Privy Council. Under the 1st Yamagata Cabinet, he was appointed Foreign Minister. Makino aligned his policies closely with Itō Hirobumi and later, with Saionji Kinmochi, and was considered one of the early leaders of the Liberalism movement in Japan. He was appointed to be Japan's ambassador plenipotentiary to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, ending World War I. Makino and his delegation put forth a racial equality proposal at the conference which did not pass.