Court origins and French studies
Saionji was born in Kyoto into the Tokudaiji family and adopted into the Saionji house. He supported the restoration of imperial government, held military and provincial responsibilities during the Boshin War, and later left office to study. An extended period in France during the 1870s brought him into contact with European legal and political life.
In 1882 he accompanied Ito Hirobumi's constitutional investigation in Europe. Diplomatic appointments in Austria, Germany and Belgium followed. His career subsequently moved among education, diplomacy, court institutions and party politics.
Legal education and a liberal newspaper
When Meiji Law School opened in 1881, its three founders—Kishimoto Tatsuo, Miyagi Kozo and Yashiro Misao—consulted Saionji. He supported the project and taught in its early years. The university also associates him with a founding statement that placed rights and liberty at the centre of legal education.
That year he joined Nakae Chomin and others in establishing Toyo Jiyu Shimbun as its president. His participation in a liberal newspaper troubled the court, and an imperial instruction brought his involvement to an end.
Two cabinets and the last genro
After serving as education minister, foreign minister and president of the Privy Council, Saionji became president of the Rikken Seiyukai in 1903. His first cabinet, formed in 1906, implemented railway nationalization. A second cabinet followed in 1911, but conflict over the army's demand for two additional divisions led to its resignation in December 1912.
Saionji represented Japan at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. As the last surviving genro, he subsequently participated in recommending prime ministers, maintaining influence between court and government. He died in 1940.