Former Residence of Prime Minister Koiso Kuniaki

This site marks the former Tokyo residence of General Kuniaki Koiso (小磯國昭, March 22, 1880 – November 3, 1950), the 41st Prime Minister of Japan. Born in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, Koiso graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1900 and built a distinguished military career spanning the Russo-Japanese War and the interwar period.

Koiso rose through the ranks to become Vice-Minister of War in 1932 and commanded the Chōsen Army in Korea from 1935 to 1938. He twice served as Minister of Colonial Affairs (1939 and 1940) before being appointed Governor-General of Korea in May 1942, where his harsh administrative style earned him the nickname "The Tiger of Korea" (朝鮮の虎).

Following the fall of Saipan in July 1944 and the resignation of Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō, Koiso was appointed as the 41st Prime Minister on July 22, 1944. His nine-month tenure was marked by a series of devastating military defeats, including the loss of the Philippines and the American advance toward the Japanese home islands. Koiso struggled with the military leadership, who increasingly excluded him from strategic decisions. When American forces invaded Okinawa in April 1945, Koiso's demands to be included in military decision-making were rejected, and he resigned on April 7, 1945, succeeded by Baron Kantarō Suzuki.

After Japan's surrender, Koiso was arrested by the Allied occupation authorities and tried before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (the Tokyo Trial). He was convicted on six counts as a Class A war criminal and sentenced to life imprisonment. Koiso served his sentence at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, where he died of esophageal cancer on November 3, 1950, at the age of 70. His grave is located at Aoyama Cemetery in central Tokyo.

The site of his former residence in Tokyo serves as a quiet reminder of the wartime leadership that steered Japan through its most catastrophic period. While the original structure no longer stands, the location is significant as the personal base from which Koiso operated during his tenure as Prime Minister and during the preceding years of his political career.