INOUYE, tni3-oo'yi', Kaorn, MARQUIS, famous Japanese statesman: b. 1835•; d. Tokio, 1 Sept. 1915. As a young man he was violently opposed to the intrusion of foreigners at the time when .Japan first sanctioned the building of foreign legations in Tokio. Together with his friend Ito, afterward Prince Ito, he set fire to the newly built British legation as a protesti A secret visit to England in 1864, however, completely changed ideas of Inouye. and Ito. It was forbidden then for Japanese to leave their country, hence visits to foreign land.1 bad to be carried out surreptitiously. The en larged views which Inouye and Ito took back home brought them into collision with their countrymen and led to a murderous attack oa the former. The new ideas spread, however; the great clans of Satsuma, Tosa and ,Choshu rallied to the cause of national regeneration. Inouye was one of the most prominent leaders in the great reform movement that culminated with extraordinary rapidity in the 'revolution of 1867 and brought Japan at a bound 'Prom a condition of Oriental medievalism•into the front rank of nations. Bows and arrows were
still used in the army. In 1870 Inouye became Vice-Minister of Finance in the Okuma ads ministration, his first official appointment. Down to 1898 when he retired from public life, he had held the portfolios of Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs, Finance, Agficulture and Com merce. In every department he displayed re sourcefulness, courage and energy, gaining a reputation as a great statesman and a builder of modern Japan. In 1894, after the Japanese had driven the Chinese out of Korea,• Inouye was sent to Seoul to reorganize the Korean administration and to superintend the introduc tion of much-needed reforms. At the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War Inouye, though in retirement, was commanded by theror to attend all important councils and to advisethe Minister of Finance. He was created a count in 1884 and marquis in 1907. See JAPAN.