death_date birth_place nationality birth_date image article_title name occupation
08 october 1954 tokyo , japan japanese 14 october 1877 joji matsumoto.jpg jōji matsumoto
 jōji matsumoto 松本烝治 legal scholar , cabinet minister
jōji matsumoto

matsumoto was born in tokyo to an ex-samurai family .
he graduated from tokyo imperial university , was accepted into the ministry of agriculture and commerce as a bureaucrat , before returning to tokyo imperial university as an assistant professor in 1903 .
he travelled to europe from 1906 to 1909 for further studies , and returned to tokyo imperial university in 1910 as a full professor .
in 1919 , matsumoto accepted a post on the board of directors of the south manchurian railway company , and eventually rose to the position of vice-president .
from 1923 , under the second yamamoto and the kiyoura administrations , he served as assistant director-general of the cabinet legislation bureau .
matsumoto was elected to the imperial academy in 1924 , and also became the president of kansai university the same year .
in 1934 , prime minister saito makoto asked that matsumoto replace kumakichi nakajima as minister of commerce and industry .
in 1938 , he supervised the implementation of a new commercial law .
matsumoto returned to the government after world war ii under the shidehara administration as a minister of state , in charge of the `` committee to study constitutional problems '' established by order of general douglas macarthur to study constitutional amendment , informally known as the `` matsumoto committee '' .
however , the committee soon decided that only minor changes were needed .
their proposals -lrb- i.e. the `` matsumoto proposal '' -rrb- were immediately rejected as being too conservative , and a draft of what later became the post-war constitution of japan prepared by the supreme commander of the allied powers was issued instead .
matsumoto then went into the private sector , opening a legal office , and providing legal advice on commercial issues and acting as a statutory auditor .
he also served as a member of the organizing committee for the tokyo symphony orchestra .
matsumoto died in 1954 and was posthumously awarded the order of the rising sun , 1st class .
his grave is at the tama cemetery in tokyo .
