Shin'ichi Sagami

Before becoming a prefectural governor, Sagami served in the Home Ministry as a ministerial secretary and later as head of the Shrine Bureau.^[7] Scholarship on modern shrine policy also identifies him as director of the Shrine Bureau in 1924–1925.^[8]

He was appointed Governor of Okayama Prefecture on 16 September 1925 and left that office on 12 May 1927 when he transferred to Nagasaki.^[9] He then served as Governor of Nagasaki Prefecture from 1927 to 1928, before becoming director of the Local Affairs Bureau in the Home Ministry.^[10][11]

On 5 July 1929, Sagami became the 19th Governor of Kyoto Prefecture.^[12] Kyoto Prefecture's official history credits him with administering what was described as a “model budget”, providing relief during the economic depression, and resolving the long-pending annexation of Fushimi and 26 surrounding towns and villages into Kyoto City.^[13]

Sagami was appointed the 21st Director-General of the Hokkaidō Agency on 2 October 1931 and remained in office until 22 April 1936.^[14] Local histories describe his tenure as a difficult one, marked by major floods, poor harvests, and the 1934 Hakodate fire.^[15][16] He was particularly associated with efforts to promote agricultural rationalization and dairying in eastern Hokkaidō; local accounts credit him with supporting the five-year conversion toward dairy farming in Nakashibetsu and with involvement in the foundation of the school that later became Rakuno Gakuen.^[17][18]

The 1934 Teikoku Jinji Taikan lists Sagami's mother as Michi Nakai and his wife as Hiro Watanabe, the daughter of Watanabe Bunjirō of Niigata Prefecture. The same source records that the couple had several children, including their heir Masahiro.^[19]

Sagami died on 29 November 1943, aged either 61 or 62.^[20][21]