Isaburō Yoshida

Isaburō Yoshida (1878–1933), born in Kyoto, graduated in law from Tokyo Imperial University and passed the diplomatic and consular examination in 1903. He served in Hong Kong and spent extended periods in British and American embassy assignments. In China in 1921, he worked on the settlement of the Shandong question. ¹

As chargé in Washington in August 1924, Yoshida pursued reciprocal tax relief for shipping. He sent the State Department the text of a new Japanese law allowing exemption of foreign shipping earnings when the vessel’s home country offered comparable treatment to Japanese ships. Tokyo was prepared to apply the exemption to American vessels once Washington confirmed that Japanese shipping would receive reciprocal treatment. ²

Yoshida became minister to Switzerland in 1926 and represented Japan at League of Nations meetings before his appointment as ambassador to Turkey in 1930. In 1932, he accompanied the Lytton Commission as Japan’s assessor during its investigation in Manchuria and other parts of China. He died the following April. ¹