Rōjū

The Rōjū (老中), usually translated as Elder, was one of the highest-ranking government posts under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan.

However, the Rōjū also served as members of the Hyōjōsho council, along with the Ō-Metsuke and representatives of various Bugyō (Commissions or Departments).

The Rōjū became little more than messengers, going through the motions of their proper roles as intermediaries between the Shogun and other offices, but not being able to exercise any power to change or decide policy.

As Arai Hakuseki, a major Confucian poet and politician of the time wrote, "All the Rōjū did was to pass on his [Yoshiyasu's] instructions" (Sansom 141).

They continued to exist, however, as a government post and a council with, officially if not in fact, all the powers and responsibilities they originally held, through the Edo period.