Shin'ichi Kasai
Japanese politician
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Shin'ichi Kasai (笠井 信一, Kasai Shin'ichi; 22 July 1864 – 25 July 1929) was a Japanese bureaucrat in the Home Ministry and politician who served as governor of Iwate Prefecture (from 1907 to 1913), Shizuoka Prefecture (1913–1914), and Okayama Prefecture (1914–1919), before becoming Director-General of the Hokkaidō Agency from April 1919 to May 1921. He was then appointed to the House of Peers.
Shin'ichi Kasai | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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笠井 信一 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Member of the House of Peers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 25 May 1921 – 25 July 1929 Nominated by the Emperor
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| Personal details | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 22 July 1864 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 25 July 1929 (aged 65) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Tokyo Imperial University | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Early life and education
Shin'ichi Kasai was born on 19 June 1864 in Fuji District, Suruga Province (now in Shizuoka Prefecture), the third son of Kasai Kanzaburō.[1] Biographical dictionaries describe him as a native of Suruga and state that he graduated from the Faculty of Law of Tokyo Imperial University in 1892.[2]
Bureaucratic and gubernatorial career
After graduating, Kasai entered the Home Ministry bureaucracy.[2] He was appointed an official of the Taiwan Governor-General's Office on 7 February 1900 and became secretary of Tainan Prefecture on 2 April 1900.[3]
Kasai was later appointed governor of Iwate Prefecture in 1907, and subsequently served as governor of Shizuoka and Okayama.[2] During his five-year tenure as governor of Okayama from 1914 to 1919, he established the Saisei komon (済世顧問) system in 1917 after Emperor Taishō asked at a conference of local governors about the condition of poor people in the prefecture; the system is regarded as the origin of Japan's later minsei-in welfare commissioner system.[1][4]
He then served as the 15th Director-General of the Hokkaidō Agency from 18 April 1919 to 27 May 1921.[5] Later in his career he became a member of the House of Peers by imperial appointment.[2]
