During the 13th century, the Fujiwara northern house ( Hokke ) was split into the five regent houses: Konoe, Takatsukasa, Kujō, Nijō and Ichijō.

Prince Fumimaro Konoe was born into the ancient Fujiwara clan, and was the heir of the princely Konoe family in Tokyo.

Konoe asserted that the proposed League of Nations was designed to cement the hegemony of the victorious nations.

Once the conference was concluded, Konoe left the delegation and visited France and Germany, then England and the United States.

Konoe as a traveler was very taken with Western society.

Even though Saionji considered him brash and " ill-informed ," Konoe was considered his protégée by all parties, including Saionji himself.

Despite his outspokenness, Prince Konoe was destined to achieve the very heights of political life in Japan.

Prime Minister Konoe began to realize that he was in a very difficult predicament.

Konoe was not the only one to be frustrated ; the Army wanted a settlement so that it could transfer more troops to the north in order to be prepared for combat with the Soviet Union.

Konoe, stating that he was tired of being a " robot " for the military, resigned in January 1939, and was appointed chairman of the Privy Council.

Konoe was awarded the 1st class of the Order of the Rising Sun in 1939.

On 23 June, Konoe resigned his position as Chairman of the Privy Council, and on 16 July 1940, the Yonai cabinet resigned and Konoe was appointed Prime Minister.

Konoe knew he was not acquiring a tame cabinet member, but he hoped that Matsuoka would be able to navigate the deeply complex international waters to Japan's advantage.

A meeting for negotiation between United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Konoe was proposed for Honolulu, to commence as early as May.

Konoe was elated by this development, and began to line up support for the idea of a summit conference in Hawaii.

Matsuoka was furious that Konoe had offered concessions behind his back.

Konoe was unable to wear him down, and was afraid of the Army's reaction if he overrode the Foreign Minister.

This was not expected by Konoe and the leadership group.

They also doubted that Konoe could make an agreement that was both acceptable to the United States and to the militarists at home.

The civilian government, especially Kōichi Kido and Fumimaro Konoe also did not favor Koiso, due to Koiso's previous involvement with the ultranationalist Sakura Kai and its attempted coup d ' état against the government in 1931 ( i. e. the " March Incident ").

* Kōji 2, in the 5th month ( 1143 ): Konoe passed his days praying at Todai-ji and also at the temples on Mount Hiei.

He also recontacted Hotsumi Ozaki who developed a close contact with the prime minister Fumimaro Konoe.

Among Kamatari's descendants are Fumimaro Konoe the 34th / 38th / 39th Prime Minister of Japan and Konoe's grandson Morihiro Hosokawa the 79th Prime Minister of Japan ( who is also a descendant of the Hosokawa clan via the Ashikaga clan of the Minamoto clan ).

Toyoda also advanced plans for a face to face meeting between Prime Minister Konoe and American President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

He was expelled from the Diet on March 7, 1940 and his speech also led to the creation of the League of Diet Members Believing the Objectives of the Holy War by Fumimaro Konoe.

* Fujiwara Masuko ( 1140 – 1201 ): wife of Emperor Nijo ( and earlier, she had also been the wife of Emperor Konoe ).

Under Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro, the Japanese government was streamlined to meet war-time conditions and under the National Mobilization Law was given absolute power over the nation's assets.

The national debates over kokutai led the Prime Minister Prince Fumimaro Konoe to appoint a committee of Japan's leading professors to deliberate the matter.

In the end, both the army and the navy as well as Konoe decided to concentrate military efforts on targets south of Japan.

To this end, Konoe resigned in July 1941 and his cabinet ministers resigned with him, including Matsuoka.

Konoe yielded to pressure and dispatched three divisions of troops, admonishing the military to be sure not to escalate the conflict.

Tōgō was adamantly against war with the United States and the other western powers, which he felt was unwinnable, and together with Mamoru Shigemitsu, made unsuccessful last-ditch efforts to arrange for direct face-to-face negotiations between Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe and US President Franklin Roosevelt in an attempt to stave off conflict.

Konoe secretly confided to a friend that he intended to grant further concessions to the United States, including withdrawal from China, using direct authority from the Emperor.

Konoe and his allies had become convinced that if the Army would only agree, in principle, to an ultimate withdrawal from China, a negotiated settlement could be reached with the United States.

Konoe planned the Sphere in 1940 in an attempt to create a Great East Asia, comprising Japan, Manchukuo, China, and parts of Southeast Asia, that would, according to imperial propaganda, establish a new international order seeking " co prosperity " for Asian countries which would share prosperity and peace, free from Western colonialism and domination.

On December 6, 1938, Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe, Foreign Minister Hachirō Arita, Army Minister Seishirō Itagaki, Naval Minister Mitsumasa Yonai, and Finance Ministry Shigeaki Ikeda met to discuss the dilemma at the " Five Ministers ' Conference ", they made a decision of prohibiting the expulsion of the Jews in Japan, Manchuria, and China in accordance with the spirit of racial equality which Japan have insisted for many years.

Following the Battle of Shanghai of 1937, the cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe was pushing for a quick and diplomatic settlement to the war in China, and not an expensive and long-term occupation.

Konoe ’ s father, Atsumaro, had been politically active, having organized the Anti-Russia Society in 1903.

Throughout the next six months, Konoe continued to hope that somehow he would convince Roosevelt to meet with him and settle differences — without having to give up Japanese hegemony in East Asia.

Konoe resigned on 16 October 1941, one day after having recommended Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni to the Emperor as his successor.

According to The Tale of the Heike, Emperor Konoe, the Emperor of Japan, became ill after having terrible nightmares every night, and a dark cloud appeared at two o ' clock in the morning on the roof of the palace in Kyoto during the summer of 1153.