Essays on Fukuzawa Yukichi

Fukuzawa Yukichi was a Japanese author, writer, teacher, translator, publisher, and leader who founded Keio University, and who was probably the most-influential man outside government service in the Japan of the Meiji Restoration.

Fukuzawa Yukichi was born into family of the Okudaira Clan of Nakatsu (now Ōita, Kyushu) in 1835. Fukuzawa grew up in northern Kyushu, he was the younger son of an impoverished lower samurai. In 1854 he started to study Western military techniques in Nagasaki. Fukuzawa studied at Tekijuku school and soon, he became fully proficient in the Dutch language. In 1859, Fukuzawa went abroad with the first Japanese diplomatic mission to the United States.

Fukuzawa Yukichi became an official translator for the Tokugawa shogunate in 1860. After he returned from Europe in 1862, he published the book "Seiyō jijō" in ten volumes in 1867, 1868 and 1870. The book was simple and clear descriptions of western culture and institutions. Also, Fukuzawa was a strong advocate for women’s rights. In 1882 he founded the "Jiji shimpō", that became one of Japan’s most-influential newspapers. He also wrote more than 100 books about parliamentary government, popular education, language reform and women’s rights.

On February 3, 1901, Fukuzawa Yukichi died after suffering a stroke.

Fukuzawa's writings may have been the foremost of the Edo period and Meiji period. Fukuzawa helped Japan modernize into the country it is today. Fukuzawa has been compared to Benjamin Franklin in the United States.