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.

Konoe was also discouraged over his failure to negotiate an end to the conflict in China, having broken off the Trautmann Mediation with Chiang.

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.

This was not expected by Konoe and the leadership group.

Prince Konoe convinced Saionji to include him in the Japanese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919.

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.

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

His knowledge of culture is not widely known but he had Hosokawa Yusai teach him classic literatures and Kampaku Konoe Wakihisa who was skilled in, but not limited to waka and renga was said to have frequented Yoshihisa's house.

Later in the story, During the fight in Kyoto in order to rescue Konoka Konoe, Mana Tatsumiya helps Asuna Kagurazaka and Setsuna Sakurazaki by shooting down Demons using a sniper rifle and two Handguns, all three which are loaded with bullets that have spells cast on them.

Using this device, Konoe Kaoru was able to stop a runaway Shinkansen a la Superman, and Fei Fen Ring was able to down the Concorde-shaped Invader.

The Army reluctantly agreed, provided that Konoe adhere to the consensus foreign policy, and be prepared to go to war if his initiative failed.

Konoe replied that, of course, negotiations were primary, and the military option was only a fall-back position if negotiations failed.

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.

Prominent court official Konoe Tadahiro responded favorably to the proposal, insinuating a marriage between the shogun and Princess Kazunomiya was possible if her present engagement failed.

Konoe resigned, only to form a new government without Matsuoka as Foreign Minister.

Hirota soon returned to government service as Foreign Minister under Hayashi's successor, Prince Konoe Fumimaro.

In 1940, Matsuoka was asked to assume the cabinet position of Minister of Foreign Affairs under Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe.

Konoe immediately was made prime minister again, and replaced Matsuoka as Foreign Minister with Admiral Teijirō Toyoda.

Tojo later became War Minister and Prime Minister in the Konoe cabinet, Matsuoka Foreign Minister, and Hoshino chief of Project departments charged with establishing a new economic structure for Japan.

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.

Arita became Foreign Minister under the cabinet of Prime Minister Kōki Hirota in 1936, and continued to serve in that post under the administrations of Fumimaro Konoe and Kiichiro Hiranuma and Mitsumasa Yonai.

Prince Konoe went on to serve three times as Japan ’ s Prime Minister.

In June 1937, Prince Fumimaro Konoe became Prime Minister of Japan.

Konoe agreed with Army Minister General Hajime Sugiyama to send two divisions to defend Japanese honor.

Konoe with his cabinet ministers, including War Minister Hideki Tōjō, the second row, second from the left ( 22 July 1940 )

But Prime Minister Konoe had a surprise for Matsuoka.

The Navy Minister made a reply along the lines that Konoe had stated in his private conference.

While the Emperor received detailed reports from Sugiyama and Nagano about the operations in Southeast Asia and the attack of Pearl Harbor, Prime Minister Konoe made one last desperate attempt to avoid war.

* December 16 – Fumimaro Konoe, Prime Minister of Japan ( suicide ) ( b. 1891 )

* October 12 – Fumimaro Konoe, Prime Minister of Japan ( d. 1945 )

* Fumimaro Konoe ( 1891 – 1945 ), 34th, 38th and 39th Prime Minister of Japan

Hiranuma returned to the government after his resignation as Prime Minister, accepting the post of Home Minister in the second Konoe Fumimaro administration from 21 December 1940 to 18 July 1941.

He withdrew from the government on the resignation of Prime Minister Konoe in October 1941.

Before the start of the Second World War, on 15 October 1941, outgoing Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe proposed Prince Higashikuni to Emperor Hirohito as his successor for prime minister.

Prince Higashikuni remained steadfast in his opposition to the war with the Allied powers, and was part of the conspiracy ( with Prince Asaka, Prince Takamatsu, and former Prime Minister Konoe ) which finally ousted Tōjō in July 1944 following the fall of Saipan to American forces.

He is the grandson of former Japanese Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe.

An earlier, influential concept was the geographically smaller version called New Order in East Asia ( 東亜新秩序 Tōa Shin Chitsujo ), which was announced by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on 22 December 1938 and was limited to Northeast Asia only.

From the latter half of 1930s, Asahi ardently supported Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe's wartime government ( called Konoe Shin Taisei, or Konoe's New Political Order ) and criticized capitalism harshly under Taketora Ogata, the Editor in Chief of Asahi Shimbun.

And Sassa, a son of ultranationalistic politician Sassa Tomofusa, joined hands with far-right generals ( they were called Kōdōha or Imperial Way Faction ) and terrorists who had assassinated Junnosuke Inoue ( ex – Minister of Finance ), Baron Dan Takuma ( chairman of the board of directors of the Mitsui zaibatsu ) and Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi to support Konoe.