Kanda Takahira

(1830-98). Also known as Kanda Kōhei. Scholar and bureaucrat. Born in what is now Gifu Prefecture. Kanda applied himself to Western learning, and after the Meiji Restoration he worked for the new government, doing research on economics and government. His proposal and implementation of the Land Tax Reform of 1873-81 and his work in setting up organs of local government established his reputation. He was appointed to the House of Peers in 1890. His Keizai shōgaku (1867, Introduction to Economics), essentially a translation of William Ellis's Outlines of Social Economy, is the earliest Japanese work on Western economics. (adapted from Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1993)