Yoshimichi Hara

Yoshimichi Hara (原 嘉道) (18 February 1867 – 7 August 1944) was a Japanese statesman and the president of the Japanese privy council during World War II, from June 1940 until his death.

Hara saw the outbreak of a war against the United States to be inevitable due to the growing threat of American influence in the Pacific region prior, and was a key advocate for the attack on Pearl Harbor on the September 6 Gozen Kaigi. Hara was of the opinion that the longer Japan waited to engage the United States, the weaker its position would become, thus subjugating the island nation to the will of American dominance in the region.

Hara, as president of the privy council, had very little political control since almost all political power was concentrated in war cabinets. Hara did, however, act as the voice for Emperor Hirohito in the privy council and delivered the Emperor's decision to go to war on 1 December 1941, stating that to yield to American demands would threaten the existence of the Empire of Japan.

After his death, Hara was decorated with the posthumous title of Imperial . He was the last commoner to become part of the Japanese aristocracy.