Gotō Shinpei

Did You Know?

• Under Gotō's gradual opium prohibition, the number of addicts dropped from 165,000 in 1900 to fewer than 8,000 by 1941, none under 30.
• Gotō named the first Citizen watch, hoping it would one day become widely available to ordinary citizens.

Early life

Gotō Shinpei was born in Isawa, Mutsu Province (now in Iwate Prefecture), to Gotō Sanetaka, a retainer of the Rusu clan, which was itself a vassal of the Sendai domain under Date Masamune. Though the family held samurai status, they were not wealthy, ranking between fifth and twentieth in the Rusu clan hierarchy. In 1868, the Sendai domain joined a northeastern alliance opposing the Meiji Restoration and was defeated in the Boshin War. Consequently, the Gotō family lost their samurai status and became farmers. After the reorganization of Isawa into a prefecture under direct Meiji government control in September 1869, Gotō was noticed by officials and chosen to assist in local administration. This led to a trip to Tokyo in 1871 under Kaetsu Ujifusa, but the visit was largely unproductive, and he returned home in 1872. Initially reluctant to study medicine, he entered Sukagawa medical school in Fukushima Prefecture at age seventeen, later becoming a physician at Aichi Prefectural Hospital in Nagoya. In 1877, he served as a government medic during the Satsuma Rebellion. At 25, he became president of Nagoya Medical School. His work there and at the military hospital in Osaka during the rebellion brought him to the attention of the Home Ministry's medical bureau, which he joined in 1883 and eventually headed. In 1890, the government sent him to Germany for further studies. That same year, he published Principles of National Health and helped create new sewage and water facilities in Tokyo. This work impressed Army Vice-Minister Kodama Gentarō, who appointed Gotō chief of the Army Quarantine Office, overseeing the return of over 230,000 soldiers from the First Sino-Japanese War. After the war, Gotō returned to the Home Ministry but remained involved in overseas affairs, advising the Japanese administration in Taiwan on health issues. In 1896, Kodama, now governor-general of Taiwan, asked Gotō to join him, and in 1898 Gotō became the first civilian governor of the island.

Taiwan

After the Treaty of Shimonoseki ceded Formosa and the Pescadores to Japan, Kodama became Governor-General of Taiwan and asked Gotō to serve as head of civilian affairs. Gotō ordered a land survey and recruited Scottish engineer William Kinninmond Burton to develop drinking water and sewage infrastructure. He replaced the military police with a civilian police force, forbade government officials and teachers from wearing uniforms and swords, and revived traditional social controls by enlisting village elders and headmen into the administration. He built a public hospital and medical college in Taipei, along with clinics to treat tropical diseases across the island. To address endemic opium addiction, Gotō recommended a policy of gradual prohibition: opium could only be purchased from licensed retailers. Strict enforcement reduced the number of addicts from 165,000 in 1900 to fewer than 8,000 by 1941, none under age 30. Government revenues from opium sales were lucrative, and Gotō used licenses to reward Taiwanese elites loyal to Japan and those who helped suppress the Taiwan Yiminjun, an armed resistance group. The plan reduced addiction and undermined the Yiminjun. As a doctor, Gotō believed Taiwan should be ruled by 'biological principles'—understanding the habits and reasons for existence of the Taiwanese population before creating policies. To this end, he created and headed the Provisional Council for the Investigation of Old Habits of Taiwan. He established the colony's economic framework through government monopolies on sugar, salt, tobacco, and camphor, and developed ports and railways. He recruited Nitobe Inazō to plan forestry and sub-tropical agriculture. By the time Gotō left office, he had tripled the road system, established postal, telephone, and telegraph services, a hydroelectric power plant, newspapers, and the Bank of Taiwan. The colony became economically self-supporting, and by 1905 no longer required home government support despite large-scale infrastructure projects.

Political career

Gotō Shinpei took on the role of the South Manchuria Railway Company's first director in 1906. Two years later, he came back to Japan to serve as Minister of Communications and head of the Railway Bureau under Prime Minister Katsura's second cabinet. By 1912, he was leading the Colonization Bureau. As a trusted ally of Katsura, Gotō helped establish the Rikken Dōshikai political party following the Taishō political crisis that same year. After Katsura died, Gotō sided with Yamagata Aritomo, becoming Home Minister in 1916 and then Foreign Minister under the Terauchi government in 1918. A firm advocate of Pan-Asianism, he championed an expansionist foreign policy during World War I and strongly backed Japan's military intervention in Siberia. In April 1919, following Korea's March First Movement, he gave a speech justifying the violent crackdown on protesters and Japan's colonial rule, claiming Korea was uncivilized and Japan was carrying out a noble civilizing effort. Gotō served as Tokyo's mayor in 1920 and returned as Home Minister in 1923, helping rebuild the city after the Great Kantō earthquake. He died from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1929 while in Okayama. His personal documents are kept at the Gotō Shinpei Memorial Museum in his birthplace, Mizusawa City, Iwate Prefecture.