Editing Shigeru Yoshida (section)

==Early life and education==
[[File:Shigeru Yoshida.jpg|thumb|left|Yoshida as a child]]
Shigeru Yoshida was born on 22 September 1878, in [[Surugadai|Kanda-Surugadai]], [[Tokyo]], the fifth son of Tsuna Takeuchi, a former [[samurai]] of the [[Tosa domain]]. Tsuna Takeuchi was a close aide to [[Taisuke Itagaki]] in the 1880s and would serve in the first [[National Diet]] elected in [[1890 Japanese general election|1890]]. The identity of Yoshida's biological mother is not known. It's likely she was a concubine of Takeuchi and possibly a [[geisha]].{{sfn|Dower|1988|pp=14-16}}{{sfn|Okazaki|2019|pp=112-114}}{{sfn|Watanabe|2016|pp=24-26}}

Shortly before Yoshida's birth, his biological father was imprisoned for anti-government conspiracy in connection to the [[Satsuma Rebellion]], and his mother gave birth to him at the house of Kenzō Yoshida, a friend of his father. As young samurai, Tsuna and Kenzō had made names for themselves amidst the decades of unrest around the time of [[Meiji Restoration]]. Since Takeuchi had several sons and his friend Kenzō Yoshida had none, Yoshida was adopted by Kenzō Yoshida and his wife Kotoko in August 1881. Kenzō Yoshida was a former samurai who had traveled to England as a stowaway in his youth. He then established himself in [[Yokohama]] as a branch manager for [[Jardine Matheson]], before becoming a successful businessman in his own right. Kotoko was the granddaughter of the [[Edo period]] [[Confucianism|Confucian]] scholar [[Issai Satō]].{{sfn|Okazaki|2019|pp=112-114}}{{sfn|Watanabe|2016|pp=24-26}}{{sfn|Dower|1988|pp=18-20}}

Yoshida spent his early childhood in Yokohama. After he graduated from elementary school there in 1889, he was enrolled at Koyo Juku, a prestigious rural boarding school. That same year, Kenzō Yoshida died, and Shigeru inherited a substantial fortune from him. Kotoko subsequently raised Shigeru on the family's estate in [[Ōiso, Kanagawa|Ōiso]] when he was not at school.{{sfn|Okazaki|2019|pp=112-114}}{{sfn|Watanabe|2016|pp=24-26}}

Yoshida spent five years at Koyo Juku. In 1894 he went to Tokyo and spent a year studying at Nihon Gakuen, a school run by the famous educator Jugo Sugiura. He then went on to [[Hitotsubashi University|Higher Commercial School]], but soon found he was unsuited for business and dropped out. He then briefly studied at Seisoku Academy and the [[Tokyo University of Science|Tokyo Physics School]] while preparing for [[Higher school (Japan)|higher school]] examinations, but he fell ill and had to spend a year at home in Ōiso. Returning to Tokyo in 1897, he entered the prestigious Peers' School, the headed by Prince [[Atsumaro Konoe]]. Yoshida advanced to the university department at Peers’ School, which Prince Konoe had established to train diplomats. The university department became defunct after Prince Konoe died in 1904, so Yoshida transferred to [[University of Tokyo|Tokyo Imperial University]] and graduated with a law degree in 1906. He passed the Foreign Service Entry Exam and entered Japan's diplomatic corps that same year, shortly after Japan's victory in the [[Russo-Japanese War]].{{sfn|Watanabe|2016|pp=24-26}}