was a Japanese economist.

Early life and education

Ōuchi was born on August 29, 1888, in what is now Minaminawaji, Hyogo, Japan. After graduating from schools in Hyogo and

Kumamoto is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2. had a populat ...

, and earned a degree from

Tokyo Imperial University The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public university, public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several Edo peri ...

Career

Ōuchi briefly worked for the

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

, then became a professor in the university's newly created economics department, where he was a member of a

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

study group. Ōuchi became the editor of the department's new research journal, and published an article that Morito Tatsuo had submitted. The article was a discussion of

Peter Kropotkin Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist and geographer known as a proponent of anarchist communism. Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, Kropotkin attended the Page Corps and later s ...

's theories and a criticism of Japan's political systems. The

Home Ministry An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a Ministry (government department), government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law e ...

made them stop distributing the journal on December 27, 1919, on the grounds that Morito's article advocated for

anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

. Morito refused to apologize for writing the article, so the economics department faculty voted to suspend both Morito and Ōuchi in January 1920 and the Home Ministry took them to court. Despite protests from hundreds of university students, Ōuchi was sentenced to a year of

probation Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offence (law), offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration. In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incar ...

. Morito was sentenced to three months in jail. During this period, Ōuchi studied abroad in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. In 1923, a few years after Ōuchi returned to the university, he was promoted to full professor. However, conflict between Marxist and anti-Marxist faculty members within the department flared up after the March 15 incident. After the incident, some Marxist members of the economics department were pressured to resign. After the Popular Front Incident, Ōuchi and fellow economists , and were arrested in February 1939. They were suspended from teaching until the trials finished. Ōuchi was found to be innocent, and returned to the university in 1945. During the

occupation of Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the Allies of World War II from the surrender of the Empire of Japan on September 2, 1945, at the war's end until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect on April 28, 1952. The occupation, led by the ...

, Ōuchi was part of an early group of economic planning led by

Shigeru Yoshida was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1946 to 1947 and again from 1948 to 1954, serving through most of the country's occupation after World War II. Yoshida played a major role in determining the cour ...

at the Foreign Ministry, alongside Arisawa and others. When Yoshida became Prime Minister in May 1946, he tapped Ōuchi as his

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

. However, Ōuchi refused the position, so Yoshida appointed

Tanzan Ishibashi was a Japanese journalist and politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1956 to 1957. Born in Tokyo, Ishibashi became a journalist after graduating from Waseda University in 1907. In 1911, he joined the ''Tōyō Keizai Shimpo'' ("Ea ...

instead. Ōuchi became the president of

Hosei University formerly known as Tokyo University of Law (東京法学社, Tokyo Hogakusha) is a top research university in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Hosei University and four other private universities in Tokyo are collectively known as "MARCH (Japanese univers ...

in 1950. He became the president of the Japan Statistical Society in 1953. In 1959, Ōuchi left Hosei University and became president of the . He was awarded the

Order of the Sacred Treasure The is a Japanese Order (distinction), order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six c ...

, first class, in 1965. He was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a world constitution. As a result, for the first time in human history, a World Constituent Assembly convened to draft and adopt the Constitution for the Federation of Earth.

Death

He died on May 1, 1980.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ōuchi, Hyōei 1888 births 1980 deaths University of Tokyo alumni Academic staff of the University of Tokyo Japanese economists World Constitutional Convention call signatories