Hachirō Arita | |
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有田 八郎 | |
Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
In office 29 October 1938 – 5 January 1939 |
|
Preceded by | Kōki Hirota |
Succeeded by | Nobuyuki Abe |
In office 16 January 1940 – 22 July 1940 |
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Preceded by | Kichisaburō Nomura |
Succeeded by | Yōsuke Matsuoka |
Personal details | |
Born | 22 September 1884 Sado, Japan |
Died | 4 March 1965 (aged 81) Tokyo, Japan |
Alma mater | Tokyo Imperial University |
Hachirō Arita (有田 八郎 Arita Hachirō?, 21 September 1884 – 4 March 1965) was a Japanese politician and diplomat who served as the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Japan) for three terms. He is believed to have originated the concept of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
Arita was born on the island of Sado in Niigata Prefecture. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after graduation in 1909 from the Law School of Tokyo Imperial University, and established himself as an expert on Asian affairs. Arita was on the Japanese delegation to the Versailles Peace Treaty Conference of 1919, and in his early career also was stationed at the Japanese consulates in Mukden and in Honolulu. He served as Japanese ambassador to Austria in 1930. He returned to Japan to briefly serve as Vice Foreign Minister in 1932, but returned to Europe in 1933 as Japanese ambassador to Belgium.
Arita became Foreign Minister under the cabinet of Prime Minister Kōki Hirota in 1936, and continued to serve in that post under the administrations of Fumimaro Konoe and Kiichirō Hiranuma and Mitsumasa Yonai. He was also a member of the House of Peers in the Diet of Japan from 1938.