Motojiro Akashi

Baron Akashi Motojiro
Japanese General Akashi Motojirō
Born	1 September 1864 Fukuoka, Chikuzen Province, Japan
Died	October 26, 1919(1919-10-26) (aged 55) Fukuoka, Japan
Allegiance	Empire of Japan
Service/branch	Imperial Japanese Army
Years of service	1889–1919
Rank	general
Battles/wars	First Sino-Japanese War Russo-Japanese War
Other work	Governor-General of Taiwan

Baron Akashi Motojiro (明石 元二郎^?, 1 September 1864 – 26 October 1919) was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and the 7th Governor-General of Taiwan from 6 June 1918 to 26 October 1919.

A native of Fukuoka and a graduate of the 1889 class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, Akashi was nominally under the Imperial Guard Division attached to the staff of General Kawakami Sōroku during the First Sino-Japanese War. His primary duty was information gathering. In that capacity he traveled extensively around the Liaodong Peninsula and northern China, Taiwan, and Annam. Toward the end of the war, he was promoted to major.

During the Spanish–American War, he was dispatched as a military observer to the Philippines. During the Boxer Rebellion, he was stationed in Tianjin, northern China. Around this time, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

At the end of 1900, Akashi was sent as a roaming military attaché in Europe, visiting Germany; Switzerland; Sweden, staying in France in 1901; and moving to Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1902. As a member of the Japanese Secret Intelligence Services, Akashi was involved in setting up an intricate espionage network in major European cities, using specially trained operatives under various covers, members of locally based Japanese merchants and workers, and local people either sympathetic to Japan, or willing to be cooperative for a price.