was an entrepreneur, politician and cabinet minister in the pre-World War II

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

Biography

Noda was from a wealthy farming family of

Takata, Fukuoka was a town located in Miike District, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 14,525 and a density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the ratio of a substance's mass to its volume. ...

(currently part of the city of Miyama,

Fukuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Fukuoka Prefecture has a population of 5,109,323 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,986 Square kilometre, km2 (1,925 sq mi). Fukuoka Prefecture borders ...

). In his youth, he worked in the

Miike Coal Mine , also known as the , was the largest coal mine in Japan,Karan, P.P. & Stapleton, K.E. (1997) ''The Japanese city'p.181University Press of Kentucky Retrieved January 2012. located in the area of the city of Ōmuta, Fukuoka and Arao, Kumamoto ...

s, following which he obtained a position at the Miike Bank, both owned by the

Mitsui is a Japanese corporate group and '' keiretsu'' that traces its roots to the ''zaibatsu'' groups that were dissolved after World War II. Unlike the ''zaibatsu'' of the pre-war period, there is no controlling company with regulatory power. Ins ...

zaibatsu is a Japanese language, Japanese term referring to industrial and financial vertical integration, vertically integrated business conglomerate (company), conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over signifi ...

''. He became active in politics, supporting the

Freedom and People's Rights Movement The Freedom and People's Rights Movement (自由民権運動, ''Jiyū Minken Undō'') was a Japanese political and social movement for democracy during the Meiji era, Meiji period. It pursued the formation of an elected legislature, revision of the ...

, serving in the Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly in 1886. He was elected to the

Lower House A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

in the March 1898 General Election, and was subsequently re-elected a total of nine times. As an entrepreneur, he founded the Miike Civil Engineering Company, and was one of the founding members of the

South Manchurian Railway The South Manchuria Railway (; ), officially , Mantetsu () or Mantie () for short, was a large of the Empire of Japan whose primary function was the operation of railways on the Dalian– Fengtian (Mukden)–Changchun (called Xinjing from ...

in 1906. He was secretary-general of the ''

Rikken Seiyūkai The was one of the main political party, political parties in the pre-war Empire of Japan. It was also known simply as the ''Seiyūkai''. Founded on September 15, 1900, by Itō Hirobumi,David S. Spencer, "Some Thoughts on the Political Devel ...

'' political party in 1912, and became vice president of the Oriental Development Company in 1913. While vice president of the Oriental Development Company, Noda advised the Diet that the number of Japanese agricultural emigrants to

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

would reach 500,000 by the year 1920, however, the actual numbers eventually turned out to be only a small fraction of this number. page 307-311 Noda served as Minister of Communications from 1918-1922 under the Hara and Takahashi administrations. He subsequently served as Minister of Commerce and Industry under the Katō Tomosaburō administration in 1925. Noda was also a poet, noted for the nationalistic themes in his works, and was a close correspondent with

Tōyama Mitsuru was a Japanese far right and ultra nationalist politician who founded secret societies called Genyosha ('' Black Ocean Society'') and Kokuryukai (''Black Dragon Society''). Tōyama was an Anti Communist and a strong proponent of Pan Asianism ...

and Nakano Seigō, with whom he cooperated in the creation of the Kokushikan University in 1917.

References

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External links

National Diet Library Bio and Photo

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Noda, Utaro 1853 births 1927 deaths People from Miyama, Fukuoka Politicians from Fukuoka Prefecture Government ministers of Japan Members of the House of Peers (Japan) Rikken Seiyūkai politicians Members of the House of Representatives (Empire of Japan)