Marquis Okuma was an eminent statesman who played a major part in the making of modern Japan, in a public career that extended over fifty years coinciding with Japan’s remarkable era of modernisation. Born into a rural samurai family, he joined the new Meiji government in 1868 on the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate, and rose steadily, twice serving as Prime Minister, laying the foundations of national finance and founding Waseda University. This volume adds balance to the historical record and provides valuable insight into the internal rivalries and dynamics of the political parties and successive administrations in modern Japan.