Itō Hirobumi
1st, 5th, 7th and 10th Prime Minister of Japan (1841–1909)
Prince Itō Hirobumi (Japanese: 伊藤 博文 [i.toː (|) çi.ɾoꜜ.bɯ.mʲi]; born Hayashi Risuke (林 利助); 16 October 1841 – 26 October 1909) was a Japanese statesman who served as the first prime minister of Japan from 1885 to 1888. Itō held office again as prime minister three times between 1892 and 1901. He was also a member of the genrō, a group of senior statesmen who effectively dictated policy for the Empire of Japan during the Meiji era. A key figure in the making of modern Japan, Itō played a central role in the drafting of the 1889 Meiji Constitution as well as the establishment of the National Diet and Japanese cabinet system.
Born into a poor farming family in the Chōshū Domain, Itō Hirobumi and his father were adopted into a low-ranking samurai family. After the opening of Japan in 1854, he joined the nationalist sonnō jōi movement before being sent to England in 1863 to study at University College London. Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Itō was appointed a junior councilor for foreign affairs in the newly formed Empire of Japan. Later in 1870, he traveled to the United States to study Western currency, and subsequently helped establish Japan's modern banking and taxation systems. Itō then set off on another overseas trip with the Iwakura Mission to the U.S. and Europe. Upon his return to Japan in 1873, he became a full councilor and public works minister.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Itō Hirobumi” is 1st, 5th, 7th and 10th Prime Minister of Japan (1841–1909). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Hirobumi, 10th and Prime, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “1st, 5th, 7th and 10th Prime Minister of Japan (1841–1909)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q174971. VIAF identifies the subject as 59886675. The Library of Congress control number is n83057663. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1841, 1909, 1885 and 1888.
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This entry incorporates text from “Itō Hirobumi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.