Tracing Japan's unofficial elder statesmen

Aside from Mitsumasa Yonai, who else might have acted as an unacknowledged genrō?

Yamamoto may have been groomed as Yonai's successor, although this interpretation stops short of calling him an established genrō.

Mitsumasa Yonai is the strongest candidate in this interpretation of unofficial elder-state authority, while Isoroku Yamamoto appears to have been prepared as his successor. Yonai's protection and mentoring of Yamamoto are compared with Tōgō's earlier protection of Yonai. Whether Tōgō himself belonged to the genrō is explicitly left open. Retinues taken to the Paris Peace Conference provide another possible example of senior figures bringing younger associates into important political work, although the intended succession relationships remain uncertain. Imperial drivers are treated as a clue to direct household connections that ordinary ministerial office would not explain. Such connections could help account for influence and protection that remained available when a statesman held no conspicuous office. The identity and background of the intimidating imperial chauffeur in the associated anecdote remain unknown, so the suggested profile of an experienced warrior is an inference.