Fukuzawa Yukichi (; 10 January 1835 – 3 February 1901) was a Japanese writer, educator, and philosopher who is regarded as one of the key figures of the Meiji era for his efforts to introduce and promote Western ideas and institutions in Japan. He was the founder of Keio Gijuku (the foundation of the modern Keio University) and the newspaper Jiji Shinpō.
Born into a low-ranking samurai family, Fukuzawa became critical of the feudal class system of Tokugawa Japan. He studied Dutch (Rangaku) and later taught himself English, eventually becoming an official translator for the shogunate. He traveled abroad with the first Japanese mission to the United States in 1860 and the first mission to Europe in 1862. These experiences convinced him that Japan needed to adopt not only Western technology but also its social, economic, and political institutions to achieve national strength and equality.
After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Fukuzawa became a leading promoter of the Bunmei-kaika (Civilization and Enlightenment) movement. He declined all government positions, choosing to remain an independent educator and writer. His prolific writings, including the bestsellers Seiyō Jijō (Conditions in the West) and Gakumon no Susume (An Encouragement of Learning), explained Western civilization and advocated for social change. In Gakumon no Susume, he famously wrote, "Heaven never created a man above another nor a man below another," arguing that social status was determined by education and practical knowledge (jitsugaku).
Fukuzawa's views on foreign policy evolved from idealism to a pragmatic acceptance of Social Darwinism, arguing that military strength was essential for national survival. In his influential 1885 editorial "Datsu-A Ron" ("Leaving Asia"), he advocated for Japan to align itself with the "civilized" nations of the West and distance itself from its "hopelessly backward" Asian neighbors. He became a strong supporter of the First Sino-Japanese War. Fukuzawa's legacy is immense but complex; he is revered for his foundational contributions to Japan's modernization, education, and the promotion of individual liberty, while his later embrace of nationalism and imperialism remains a subject of debate. His portrait appeared on the 10,000 yen note from 1984 to 2024.
Early life and education Birth in Osaka and return to Nakatsu Fukuzawa Yukichi was born on 10 January 1835 in Osaka, Japan, into a low-ranking but respected samurai family of the Okudaira clan of Nakatsu. His father, Fukuzawa Hyakusuke, held the rank of nakakosho with a low stipend of a little over thirteen koku of rice, and served as the domain's overseer of the treasury in Osaka. The family's position, though clerical, provided some material comforts beyond their small official stipend. Fukuzawa was the youngest of five children, with one older brother and three older sisters.
His father was a Confucian scholar who opposed his children learning practical skills like mathematics, considering them the "tool of merchants" and demeaning to their samurai status. Hyakusuke died in 1836, forcing the family to return to their home castle town of Nakatsu in Kyushu. The move was difficult for Fukuzawa's mother, O-Jun, who had grown accustomed to city life. The family faced a significant reduction in income, living on their small official stipend. As the younger son, Fukuzawa had no prospect of inheriting the headship of the family and its associated stipend, which would go to his older brother. His options were limited to being adopted into another family, becoming a priest, or remaining at home and supporting himself through odd jobs.
Life in a feudal society Nakatsu was a small, provincial castle town governed by the Okudaira clan, loyal vassals of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate. Society was rigidly stratified by law. The samurai class was at the top, followed by peasants, artisans, and merchants. Within the samurai class, strict feudal discipline reinforced the lower samurai’s inferiority to the upper. A lower samurai had to use honorific language, speak with a different accent, and in some cases, prostrate himself on the ground when in the presence of an upper samurai. The Fukuzawa family was of lower samurai status, living in a district far from the central castle, a physical indicator of their social standing. Advancement beyond one's inherited rank was nearly impossible; as Fukuzawa later wrote, there was as much chance of promotion as a "four-legged beast [might] hope to fly like a bird." This rigid class system instilled in Fukuzawa a lifelong resentment of the feudal system, which he declared he hated "as though it were my father’s murderer."
Poverty forced many low-ranking samurai families, including the Fukuzawas, to engage in side jobs to survive, such as making sandals or umbrellas, despite the official disdain for commercial activities. Education was also stratified; upper samurai studied Confucian classics and military strategy, while lower samurai were primarily instructed in practical skills like writing and arithmetic. Fukuzawa did not begin his formal education until the age of fourteen, but he quickly excelled, leading discussions and debates on Chinese philosophy. Encouraged by his liberal-minded mother, he developed a desire to leave the "narrow stiffness" of Nakatsu.
Western studies
In February 1854, at the age of nineteen, Fukuzawa left Nakatsu for Nagasaki, one of the few places in secluded Japan with contact with the West. He traveled there to study Dutch (Rangaku), then the primary language for Western learning, and the technical operation of modern weaponry. This was shortly after Commodore Matthew C. Perry's "Black Ships" had arrived in Edo Bay, signaling the end of Japan's long isolation. In Nagasaki, Fukuzawa lived in the home of a bakufu official and quickly progressed in his language studies. However, his success aroused the jealousy of his patron, who concocted a false story that Fukuzawa's mother was ill to force him to return home.
Seeing through the ruse, Fukuzawa decided not to return to Nakatsu but instead to travel to Edo. On his journey, he stopped in Osaka in March 1855, where his brother Sannosuke was now the domain's storehouse manager. Sannosuke persuaded him to stay and continue his Dutch studies at the renowned Tekijuku, a school run by the physician and scholar Ogata Kōan. The students at Tekijuku worked with fanatical zeal, studying physics, chemistry, and medicine from the few Dutch books available.
Fukuzawa's studies were interrupted in 1856 by the death of his brother, which forced him to return to Nakatsu to become the head of the Fukuzawa family. He detested the boring life of a lower-level samurai and, after three months, received permission from the domain lord to return to Tekijuku. He became a boarder at the school, where he excelled, eventually becoming the head student. During this time, he developed a disdain for Chinese studies, which he saw as impractical, and fully embraced Western learning.
Travels abroad and early career Move to Edo and first mission to America In 1858, the Nakatsu domain ordered Fukuzawa to move to Edo (modern Tokyo) to establish a Dutch studies school for the domain's vassals. Shortly after arriving, he visited the new treaty port of Yokohama and was shocked to discover that most Westerners there spoke English, not Dutch. His years of Dutch study were suddenly obsolete. He immediately began to teach himself English.
In 1860, as part of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, the Tokugawa shogunate sent its first diplomatic mission to the United States. While the main delegation traveled on an American warship, a second ship, the Kanrin Maru, was purchased from the Dutch to serve as an escort, crewed entirely by Japanese sailors. Determined to be part of this historic voyage, Fukuzawa volunteered his services and was accepted as the personal steward to the ship's captain, Kimura Yoshitake. The Kanrin Maru reached San Francisco after a harrowing journey. While most of his fellow travelers were disoriented by the foreign culture, Fukuzawa sought to learn as much as possible. He was not surprised by Western technology, which he understood from his studies, but was struck by social and cultural differences, such as the apparent wastefulness of American society and customs like ladies and gentlemen dancing together at parties.
Mission to Europe Upon his return to Japan in June 1860, Fukuzawa was hired by the bakufu as a translator of diplomatic documents. The period was one of intense anti-foreign sentiment, and those associated with Western learning risked their lives. Fukuzawa remained cautious but determined to continue his work. In 1861, he married Toki Okin, the daughter of an upper-ranking Nakatsu samurai.
In 1862, Fukuzawa joined another shogunal mission, this time to Europe, as an official translator. The goal was to negotiate a delay in the opening of further ports to foreign trade. The mission traveled through France, Britain, the Netherlands, Prussia, Russia, and Portugal over the course of a year. In London, the group visited the 1862 International Exhibition, Woolwich Arsenal, and the Houses of Parliament. Fukuzawa was an indefatigable note-taker, inquiring about hospitals, banks, the postal system, and the party system. This journey solidified his belief that Japan needed to adopt not just Western science but also its social and political institutions to achieve equality and strength. He began writing his famous work Conditions in the West in 1864, with the first volume published in 1866.
Meiji Restoration and enlightenment
Sidestepping the civil war Fukuzawa returned to Japan in 1863 to a country in turmoil. The struggle between the weakening Tokugawa shogunate and pro-imperial forces was escalating into civil war. As a translator for the bakufu, Fukuzawa was a fierce partisan of the Tokugawa cause until shortly before its overthrow in 1868. He saw the shogunate's government as "bureaucratic, oppressive, [and] conservative," but considered the imperial forces "still more anti-foreign and violent in their action." He believed both sides were ignorant of the need for fundamental reform.
While fighting raged in Edo in 1868, Fukuzawa remained focused on his educational work. At the very time the city was in chaos, he purchased a large estate in the Mita district of Edo and moved his small school there. He renamed it Keio Gijuku after the Keio era name, and it became the foundation for the modern Keio University. He continued lecturing on Francis Wayland's Elements of Political Economy during the Battle of Ueno, a testament to his belief in the primacy of education and enlightenment even in times of political upheaval.
Champion of "Civilization and Enlightenment"
With the establishment of the new Meiji government in 1868, Fukuzawa was repeatedly offered government positions but declined them all, choosing to remain an independent private citizen. He became a leading voice of the Bunmei-kaika (Civilization and Enlightenment) movement. His understanding of the concepts of "civilization" and "enlightenment" was first shaped by American geography textbooks by Samuel Mitchell and Sarah Cornell, which outlined a theory of societal development through stages such as "savage," "barbarous," and "civilized."