Prince Yamagata Aritomo (山縣 有朋, 14 June 1838 – 1 February 1922) was a Japanese politician and general who served as prime minister of Japan from 1889 to 1891, and from 1898 to 1900.

He was also a leading member of the genrō, a group of senior courtiers and statesmen who dominated the politics of Japan during the Meiji era.

[2][additional citation(s) needed] Yamagata Aritomo was born in the Chōshū Domain to a low-ranking samurai family, and after the opening of Japan in 1854 became active in the movement to overthrow the shogunate.

[3][4][5] However, a political scandal involving his meddling in Crown Prince Hirohito's engagement led to him losing power shortly before his death in 1922.

His father was a low-ranking samurai who carried weaponry during wartime and was a petty official at the town magistrate office (machi-bugyō-sho) during peacetime.

[9] He went to Shokasonjuku, a private school run by Yoshida Shōin, where he was active in the growing underground movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate.

After the defeat of the Tokugawa, Yamagata together with Saigō Tsugumichi was selected by the leaders of the new government to go to Europe in 1869 to research European military systems.

Yamagata like many Japanese was strongly influenced by the striking success of Prussia in transforming itself from an agricultural state to a leading industrial and military power.

Additionally, he was the founding father of Japan's Hokushin-ron policy due to his central role in drawing up a preliminary national defensive strategy against Russia following the Russo-Japanese War.

These seven men (plus two who were chosen later after some of the first seven had died) led Japan for many years, through its great transformation from an agricultural country into a modern military and industrial state.

Yet the genrō collectively made the most important decisions, such as peace and war and foreign policy, and when a cabinet resigned they chose the new prime minister.

In 1882, he became president of the Board of Legislation (Sanjiin) and as Home Minister (1883–87) he worked vigorously to suppress political parties and repress agitation in the labor and agrarian movements.

During his first term from December 24, 1889, to May 6, 1891, he became the first prime minister compelled to share power with a partially-elected Imperial Diet under the Meiji Constitution which took effect in 1890.

Attending the coronation of the Russian Czar Nicholas II on November 1, 1894, he made a tentative offer to Spain on buying the Philippines for £40 million.

[12] After the assassination of Itō Hirobumi in 1909, Yamagata became the most influential statesman in Japan and remained so until his death in 1922,[13] although he retired from active participation in politics after the Russo-Japanese War.

As president of the Privy Council from 1909 to 1922, Yamagata remained the power behind the government and dictated the selection of future prime ministers until his death.

Yamagata Isaburō subsequently assisted his adopted father by serving as a career bureaucrat, cabinet minister, and head of the civilian administration of Korea.