[citation needed] In 1871, following the Meiji Restoration, Watanabe and his brother were called to Tokyo, and were able to secure positions at the new Ministry of Popular Affairs with Ōkubo’s assistance.

Ultimately unsuccessful in assisting Ōkubo, he resigned his posts and retired to seclusion in Kyoto, where he devoted his time to studies of French, German and English, as well as classical Latin and Greek.

[2] Following Matsukata’s resignation in the aftermath of the election scandal precipitated by Shinagawa Yajirō in 1892, Watanabe was appointed Minister of Finance under the 2nd Itō Hirobumi administration.

During his tenure, the government was in a budgetary deadlock, as the opposition parties demanded a large reduction in public spending, whereas the military was pushing for more warships.

The impasse was only resolved through the personal intervention of Emperor Meiji, and Watanabe was replaced as Finance Minister by Matsukata on 17 March 1896, but returned to the same post from 27 August to 18 September of the same year.