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Government official, statesman. Born in Kumamoto, the son of a Buddhist priest. He went to Tokyo and started working for Saitama Prefecture. In 1876, he entered the Justice Ministry. In 1884, under the then home minister Aritomo Yamagata, he became Police Security Department director in the Home Ministry and focused on such matters as the enactment of the Peace Preservation Law. As a powerful official in the faction of Yamagata, he exerted influence over the political community. In 1891, he was selected as a member of the House of Peers by Imperial nomination. He successively held important ministerial posts, including justice minister in the second Matsukata cabinet and second Yamagata cabinet, and justice and agriculture and commerce ministers in the first Katsura cabinet. Later, after serving as privy councillor, vice-chairman, then chairman of the Privy Council, he became prime minister in 1924, but he dissolved the House of Representatives when faced with the second movement to protect the Constitution. As the result of a massive rout in the general election, his cabinet resigned en masse.
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Kiyoura, Keigo 
