Shojiro Goto

Goto, Shojiro

 

Born Mar. 19, 1838, in Kochi; died Aug. 4, 1897, in Tokyo. Japanese politician and statesman.

Goto was of samurai origin from Tosa. He participated actively in the unsuccessful bourgeois revolution of 1867–68. In the 1870’s and 1880’s he was one of the leaders of the landowner and bourgeois liberal movement, and he led a grouping of the big and middle bourgeoisie in the Jiyuto Party. At the end of the 1880’s, Goto began to work for unification of all the groups in the ruling camp for a struggle against the growing democratic movement, and he demanded a more expansionist foreign policy. This policy was the basis of the agreement between the liberal opposition and the government. Goto held ministerial positions during 1889–93.