Itsurō Terada
Japanese lawyer
Itsurō Terada (寺田 逸郎, Terada Itsurō; born 9 January 1948) is a Japanese lawyer who served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan from 2014 to 2018.
Early life and education
Terada was born in Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. He was born into a family of great judicial significance. His father, Jirō Terada, was the Supreme Court's 10th Chief Justice. In 1972, he graduated from the University of Tokyo, Faculty of Law.
By 1980, Terada had held various positions as Assistant Judge in several District Courts, the Tokyo District Court in 1974, the Sapporo District Court in 1977 and the Osaka District Court in 1980. Terada was also the Ambassador of Japan to the Netherlands in 1981. He then moved to the Ministry of Justice in 1988, where he served as the Director-General of the Judicial System Department and the Civil Affairs Bureau.
Before becoming Chief Justice, Terada was the President of the Hiroshima High Court and was also one of the Justices of the Supreme Court.
Chief Justice
At age 66, Terada replaced Hironobu Takesaki as Chief Justice on 1 April 2014, when Takesaki reached the date of his retirement.
“Itsurō Terada” enters the record as japanese lawyer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Itsurō, Terada and Japanese can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Itsurō Terada” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Itsurō, Terada and Japanese provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11458035. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948, 2014, 2018 and 1972.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Itsurō Terada”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Itsurō Terada primary sources, Itsurō Terada archive and Itsurō research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Itsurō Terada”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Itsurō Terada” 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.