Terauchi Masatake " Gensui " Count , GCB ( 5 February 1852 – 3 November 1919 ) , was a Japanese military officer , proconsul and politician . He was a " Gensui " ( or Marshal ) in the Imperial Japanese Army and the 9th Prime Minister of Japan from 9 October 1916 to 29 September 1918 . Early period . Terauchi Masatake was born in Chōshū Domain ( present - day Yamaguchi prefecture ) as the son of a " samurai " of the Hagi clan . As a young soldier , he fought in the Boshin War against the Tokugawa shogunate , and later was commissioned second lieutenant in the fledging Imperial Japanese Army . He was injured and lost his right hand during the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 , but his physical disability did not prove to be an impediment to his future military and political career . Military career . In 1882 , after being sent to France for military study as military attaché , Terauchi was appointed to several important military posts . He was the first Inspector General of Military Education in 1898 and made that post one of the three most powerful in the Imperial Army . He was appointed as Minister of the Army in 1901 , during the first Katsura administration . The Japanese victory in the Russo - Japanese War ( 1904 – 1905 ) occurred during his term as War Minister . After the war , he was ennobled with the title of " danshaku " ( baron ) , and in 1911 , his title was raised to that of " hakushaku " ( count ) . Korean Resident - General . General Viscount Terauchi ( as he then was ) was appointed as the third and last Japanese Resident - General of Korea on the assassination of Prince Itō in Harbin by An Jung - geun . As Resident - General , he executed the Japan - Korea Annexation Treaty in 1910 , and thus became the first Japanese Governor - General of Korea . The annexation of Korea by Japan and subsequent policies introduced by the new government was highly unpopular with large segments of the Korean population , and Terauchi employed military force to maintain control . General Terauchi used the deep historical and cultural ties between Korea and Japan as justification for the eventual goal of complete assimilation of Korea into the Japanese mainstream . To this end , thousands of schools were built across Korea . Although this contributed greatly to an increase in literacy and the educational standard , the curriculum was centered on Japanese language and history , with the intent of assimilation of the populace into loyal subjects of the Japanese Empire . Other of Terauchi ' s policies also had noble goals but evil consequences . For example , land reform was desperately needed in Korea . The Korean land ownership system was a complex system of absentee landlords , partial owner - tenants , and cultivators with traditional but without legal proof of ownership . Terauchi ' s new Land Survey Bureau conducted cadastral survey s that reestablished ownership by basis of written proof ( deeds , titles , and similar documents ) . Ownership was denied to those who could not provide such written documentation ( mostly lower class and partial owners , who had only traditional verbal " cultivator rights " ) . Although the plan succeeded in reforming land ownership / taxation structures , it added tremendously to the bitter and hostile environment of the time by enabling a huge amount of Korean land to be seized by the government and sold to Japanese developers . He was created a Count in the " Kazoku " in 1911 . Isabel Anderson , who visited Korea and met Count Terauchi in 1912 , wrote as follows : Political career . In 1916 , Count Terauchi became the 9th person to serve as Prime Minister of Japan . During the same year , he received his promotion to the largely ceremonial rank of " Gensui " ( or Marshal ) . His cabinet consisted solely of career bureaucrats as he distrusted career civilian politicians . During part of his administration he simultaneously also held the post of Foreign Minister and Finance Minister . During his tenure , Count Terauchi pursued an aggressive foreign policy . He oversaw the Nishihara Loans ( made to support the Chinese warlord Duan Qirui in exchange for confirmation of Japanese claims to parts of Shandong Province and increased rights in Manchuria ) and the Lansing - Ishii Agreement ( recognizing Japan ' s special rights in China ) . Terauchi upheld Japan ' s obligations to the United Kingdom under the Anglo - Japanese Alliance in World War I , dispatching ships from the Imperial Japanese Navy to the $ 3 , Indian Ocean and Mediterranean , and seizing control of German colonies in Tsingtao and the Pacific Ocean . After the war , Japan joined the Allies in the Siberian Intervention ( whereby Japan sent troops into Siberia in support of White Russian forces against the Bolshevik Red Army in the Russian Revolution ) . In September 1918 , Terauchi resigned his office , due to the rice riots that had spread throughout Japan due to postwar inflation ; he died the following year . His decorations included the Order of the Rising Sun ( 1st class ) and Order of the Golden Kite ( 1st Class ) . The billiken doll , which was a Kewpie - like fad toy invented in 1908 and was very popular in Japan , lent its name to the Terauchi administration , partly due to the doll ’ s uncanny resemblance to Count Terauchi ' s bald head . Legacy . Terauchi ' s eldest son , " Gensui " Count Terauchi Hisaichi , was the commander of the Imperial Japanese Army ' s Southern Expeditionary Army Group during World War II . The 2nd Count Terauchi was also a " Gensui " ( or Marshal ) like his father . Honours . " From the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia "