death_date death_place birth_place image_size nationality birth_date image article_title name occupation
14 april 1925 tokyo , japan yonezawa domain , japan 200px japanese 2 march 1849 hirata tosuke.jpg hirata tosuke
 hirata tosuke cabinet minister , legal scholar
hirata tosuke

count was a statesman and lord keeper of the privy seal of japan , active in the meiji and taishō period empire of japan .
hirata was born in the yonezawa domain , dewa province -lrb- currently yamagata prefecture -rrb- as the son of a local `` samurai '' .
he was sent by the domain to edo for studies , and subsequently fought in the boshin war on the side of the Ōuetsu reppan dōmei .
after the meiji restoration , was ordered by the domain to go to tokyo and study at the `` daigaku nankō '' -lrb- predecessor of tokyo imperial university -rrb- .
after graduating , he was a student member of the iwakura mission of 1871 along with makino nobuaki .
he later stayed in germany to study at heidelberg university -lrb- where he studied politics and international law -rrb- and leipzig university -lrb- where he studied commercial law -rrb- .
he is the first japanese with a doctorate degree .
hirata returned to japan in 1876 and served in a number of posts in the new meiji government 's ministry of finance , and later became documentation bureau director of the grand council '' -lrb- dajō-kan -rrb- '' and legislation bureau director .
in 1890 , he was selected as a member of the house of peers of the new diet of japan by imperial command .
he successively held important posts including chief secretary of the privy council , director-general of the legislation bureau , agriculture and commerce minister in the first katsura cabinet , home minister in the second katsura cabinet , provisionary diplomatic investigation board member , and lord keeper of the privy seal of japan .
hirata was also very active in the movement of local agricultural reforms , an industrial cooperative program , and poverty relief projects , striving to protect the local country people against the inflationary economy after the russo-japanese war and world war i.
