Prince Matsukata Masayoshi (松方 正義, 25 February 1835 – 2 July 1924) was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1891 to 1892, and from 1896 to 1898.

Born in the Satsuma Domain to a samurai family, Matsukata served as finance minister for 15 of the 20 years between 1881 to 1901, and had significant influence in the financial and economic articles of the Meiji Constitution of 1889.

[2] At the age of 13, he entered the Zoshikan, the Satsuma domain's Confucian academy, where he studied the teachings of Wang Yangming, which stressed loyalty to the Emperor.

Matsukata was highly regarded by Ōkubo Toshimichi and Saigō Takamori, who used him as their liaison between Kyoto and the domain government in Kagoshima.

At the time of the Meiji Restoration, he helped maintain order in Nagasaki after the collapse of the Tokugawa bakufu.

Matsukata moved to Tokyo in 1871 and began work on drafting laws for the Land Tax Reform of 1873–1881.

The economy was eventually stabilized, but the resulting crash in commodity prices caused many smaller landholders to lose their fields to money-lending neighbors.

Matsukata also sought to protect Japanese industry from foreign competition, but was restricted by the unequal treaties.

[12] Matsukata's son, Kōjirō Matsukata (1865–1950) led a successful business career at the head of the Kawasaki Heavy Industries and K Line groups, while investing his significant personal fortune in the acquisition of several thousand examples of Western painting, sculpture and decorative arts.

[13] Another son, Shokuma Matsukata, married Miyo Arai (1891-1984), who, as Miyo A. Matsukata, was instrumental in introducing the Christian Science religion to Japan, and who became one of the first Japanese to engage in the public practice of Christian Science healing.