Today, Uesugi is best remembered for his financial changes in his domain. He is often used as an example of a good governor of a domain. Yonezawa had been in debt for about a hundred years when Uesugi took over. Shigesada had thought about returning the domain to the shogunate because of the debt. His his father-in-law, the daimyo of Owari province, told him he should resign as daimyo instead of this. This is how Uesugi came to be daimyo of Yonezawa. He created strict disciplinary measures. Several of his "karō" (advisers) did not think his plans were good. He had these people killed. Because of many of the changes he caused, Yonezawa became prosperous. It also did not suffer much from the famine in Japan in the Tenmei era (1781-9). In 1830, less than a decade after Harunori's death, the shogunate said that Yonezawa was a paragon of a well-governed domain.