Minister of Justice (Japan) explained

Post:	Minister of Justice
Insignia:	Goshichi no kiri.svg
Insigniasize:	80px
Insigniacaption:	Emblem of the Government of Japan
Incumbent:	Ryuji Koizumi
Incumbentsince:	13 September 2023
Department:	Ministry of Justice
Style:	His Excellency
Member Of:	Cabinet of Japan
Reports To:	Prime Minister of Japan
Appointer:	Prime Minister of Japan
Appointer Qualified:	attested to by the Emperor
Deputy:	State Minister of Justice
Salary:	¥20,916,000

The is a member of the Cabinet of Japan and is the leader and chief executive of the Ministry of Justice. The minister is nominated by the Prime Minister of Japan and is appointed by the Emperor of Japan.

The current minister is Ryuji Koizumi, who took office on 13 September 2023.

Organization and authority

On 1 August 1952, the Attorney General's Office became the Ministry of Justice, headed by a Minister of Justice rather than an attorney general.^[1]

By law, the Minister of Justice is authorized to order executions of any inmate on death row at anytime, making the position highly influential. The Minister is also authorized to deport or grant any foreigner residential or permanent visas.

List of ministers of justice

1952–2000

Justice minister! colspan="3"

Term of office	Prime minister
			Portrait		Name	Took office	Left office	Days
1			Tokutaro Kimura	August 1, 1952	October 30, 1952			Shigeru Yoshida
2			Takeru Inukai	October 30, 1952	April 22, 1954
3			Ryogo Kato	April 22, 1954	June 19, 1954
4			Naoshi Ohara	June 19, 1954	December 10, 1954
5			Shiro Hamamura	December 10, 1954	November 22, 1955			Ichirō Hatoyama
6			Ryozo Makino	November 22, 1955	December 23, 1956
7			Umekichi Nakamura	December 23, 1956	July 10, 1957			Tanzan Ishibashi
								Nobusuke Kishi
8			Toshiki Karasa	July 10, 1957	June 12, 1958
9			Kiichi Aichi	June 12, 1958	June 18, 1959
10			Hiroya Ino	June 18, 1959	July 19, 1960
11			Tetsuzo Kojima	July 19, 1960	December 8, 1960			Hayato Ikeda
12			Koshiro Ueki	December 8, 1960	July 18, 1962
13			Kunio Nakagaki	July 18, 1962	July 18, 1963
14			Okinori Kaya	July 18, 1963	July 18, 1964
15		<	-- Do not use placeholder images per WP:IPH -->	Hitoshi Takahashi	July 18, 1964	June 3, 1965
								Eisaku Satō
16			Mitsujirō Ishii	June 3, 1965	December 3, 1966
17			Isaji Tanaka	December 3, 1966	November 25, 1967
18			Bunzo Akama	November 25, 1967	November 30, 1968
19			Kichinosuke Saigo	November 30, 1968	January 14, 1970
20			Takeji Kobayashi	January 14, 1970	February 9, 1971
21			Daisuke Akita	February 9, 1971	February 17, 1971
22(12)			Koshiro Ueki	February 17, 1971	July 5, 1971
23			Shigesaburō Maeo	July 5, 1971	July 7, 1972
24			Yuichi Kori	July 7, 1972	December 22, 1972			Kakuei Tanaka
25			Isaji Tanaka	December 22, 1972	November 25, 1973
26			Umekichi Nakamura	November 25, 1973	November 11, 1974
27			Seigo Hamano	November 11, 1974	December 9, 1974
28			Osamu Inaba	December 9, 1974	December 24, 1976			Takeo Miki
29			Hajime Fukuda	December 24, 1976	October 5, 1977			Takeo Fukuda
30			Mitsuo Setayama	October 5, 1977	December 7, 1978
31			Yoshimi Furui	December 7, 1978	November 9, 1979			Masayoshi Ōhira
32			Tadao Kuraishi	November 9, 1979	July 17, 1980
33			Seisuke Okuno	July 17, 1980	November 30, 1980			Zenkō Suzuki
34			Michita Sakata	November 30, 1980	November 27, 1982
35			Hatano Akira	November 27, 1982	December 27, 1983			Yasuhiro Nakasone
36			Eisaku Sumi	December 27, 1983	November 1, 1984
37			Hitoshi Shimazaki	November 1, 1984	December 28, 1985
38			Seigo Suzuki	December 28, 1985	July 22, 1986
39			Kaname Endo	July 22, 1986	November 6, 1987
40			Yukio Hasegawa	November 6, 1987	December 27, 1988			Noboru Takeshita
41			Takashi Hasegawa	December 27, 1998	December 30, 1998
42			Masami Takatsuji	December 30, 1998	June 3 1989
43			Kazuo Tanikawa	June 3 1989	August 10, 1989			Sōsuke Uno
44			Masao Goto	August 10, 1989	February 28, 1990			Toshiki Kaifu
45			Shin Hasegawa	February 28, 1990	September 13, 1990
46			Seiroku Kajiyama	September 13, 1990	December 29, 1990
47			Megumi Sato	December 29, 1990	November 5, 1991
48			Takashi Tawara	November 5, 1991	December 12, 1992			Kiichi Miyazawa
49			Masaharu Gotōda	December 12, 1992	August 9, 1993
50			Akira Mikazuki	August 9, 1993	April 28, 1994			Morihiro Hosokawa
52			Nagano Shigeto	April 28, 1994	May 8, 1994			Tsutomu Hata
53			Hiroshi Nakai	May 8, 1994	June 30, 1994
54			Isao Maeda	June 30, 1994	August 8, 1995			Tomiichi Murayama
55			Tomoharu Tazawa	August 8, 1995	October 8, 1995
56			Hiroshi Miyazawa	October 8, 1995	January 11, 1996
57			Ritsuko Nagao	January 11, 1996	November 7, 1996			Ryutaro Hashimoto
58			Isao Matsuura	November 7, 1996	September 11, 1997
59			Kokichi Shimoinaba	September 11, 1997	July 30, 1998
60			Shozaburo Nakamura	July 30, 1998	March 8, 1999			Keizō Obuchi
61			Takao Jinnouchi	March 8, 1999	October 5, 1999
62			Hideo Usui	October 5, 1999	July 4, 2000
								Yoshirō Mori
63			Okiharu Yasuoka	July 4, 2000	December 5, 2000
64			Masahiko Komura	December 5, 2000	January 6, 2001

2001–present

Justice minister				Term of office			Prime minister
	Portrait		width=180px	Name	Took office	Left office	Days
65(64)			Masahiko Kōmura	January 6, 2001	April 26, 2001			Yoshirō Mori
66			Mayumi Moriyama	April 26, 2001	September 22, 2003			Junichiro Koizumi
67			Daizō Nozawa	September 22, 2003	September 27, 2004
68			Chieko Nōno	September 27, 2004	October 31, 2005
69			Seiken Sugiura	October 31, 2005	September 26, 2006
70			Jinen Nagase	September 26, 2006	August 27, 2007			Shinzō Abe
71			Kunio Hatoyama	August 27, 2007	August 2, 2008
							Yasuo Fukuda
72			Okiharu Yasuoka	August 2, 2008	September 24, 2008
73			Eisuke Mori	September 24, 2008	September 16, 2009			Taro Aso
74			Keiko Chiba	September 16, 2009	September 7, 2010			Yukio Hatoyama
							Naoto Kan
75			Minoru Yanagida	September 7, 2010	November 22, 2010
76			Yoshito Sengoku	November 22, 2010	January 14, 2011
77			Satsuki Eda	January 14, 2011	September 2, 2011
78			Hideo Hiraoka	September 2, 2011	January 13, 2012			Yoshihiko Noda
79			Toshio Ogawa	January 13, 2012	June 4, 2012
16			Makoto Taki	June 4, 2012	October 1, 2012
17			Keishu Tanaka	October 1, 2012	October 23, 2012
18 (16)			Makoto Taki	October 23, 2012	December 26, 2012
19			Sadakazu Tanigaki	December 26, 2012	September 3, 2014			Shinzō Abe
20			Midori Matsushima	September 3, 2014	October 20, 2014
21			Yōko Kamikawa	October 20, 2014	October 7, 2015
22			Mitsuhide Iwaki	October 7, 2015	August 3, 2016
23			Katsutoshi Kaneda	August 3, 2016	August 3, 2017
24 (21)			Yōko Kamikawa	August 3, 2017	October 2, 2018
25			Takashi Yamashita	October 2, 2018	September 11, 2019
26			Katsuyuki Kawai	September 11, 2019	October 31, 2019
27			Masako Mori	October 31, 2019	September 16, 2020
28 (21)			Yōko Kamikawa	September 16, 2020	October 4, 2021			Yoshihide Suga
29			Yoshihisa Furukawa	October 4, 2021	10 August 2022			Fumio Kishida
30			Yasuhiro Hanashi	10 August 2022	11 November 2022
31			Ken Saitō	November 11, 2022	September 13, 2023
32			Ryuji Koizumi	September 13, 2023	Incumbent

References

1. Web site: History of the Ministry of Justice . 2024-06-16 . Ministry of Justice.