View source for Ministry of Commerce and Industry (Japan)

The {{nihongo|''' Ministry of Commerce and Industry '''|商工省|Shōkō-shō}} was a [[Cabinet (government)|cabinet]]-level ministry in the government of the [[Empire of Japan]] from 1925 to 1947. It was created from the {{nihongo|[[Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce]]|農商務省|Nō-shōmu-shō}}, and was briefly merged with the {{nihongo|[[Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Japan)|Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry]]|農林省|Nōrin-shō}} to reestablish that Ministry during [[World War II]].
==History==
The original Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce was created on 7 April 1881, initially under the Meiji ''[[Daijō-kan]]'' Cabinet, and then under the [[Meiji Constitution]]. It combined the Bureaus of Agriculture, Forestry, Natural History and [[Shukuba|post station]] maintenance which were formerly directly under the [[Prime Minister of Japan|Prime Minister]] with the Bureau of Commerce formerly under the control of the [[Ministry of Finance (Japan)|Ministry of Finance]].
On 1 April 1925, under Prime Minister [[Takahashi Korekiyo]], the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce was divided into the '''Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry''', and the '''Ministry of Commerce and Industry'''. The division was a result of long-standing acrimony within the ministry between the "commerce" portion of the ministry, which sought expanded overseas trade, and the [[protectionism|protectionist]] "agriculture" portion of the ministry which sought to ban imports of food, especially rice.
In 1934, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry divested itself of the [[iron and steel industry]], leading to the formation of the [[Nippon Steel Corporation]]. Following the start of the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]], the Ministry of Commerce and Industry found its role changing from promotion of trade and commerce to enforcing restrictions on trade and management of rationing programs. By the middle of  [[World War II]], the [[Ministry of Munitions (Japan)|Ministry of Munitions]], [[Ministry of Transport and Communications (Japan)|Ministry of Transport and Communications]] and the [[Planning Board]] absorbed most of the functions of the Ministry of Commerce, and the vestigial remains were merged with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to re-establish the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce on November 1, 1943.  The re-formed ministry was also in charge of distribution of rationed goods.
In the post-war period, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry was re-established briefly under the aegis of the [[Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers]], and was assigned control of electrical power production and electrical power distribution. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry became the [[Ministry of International Trade and Industry]], or MITI on May 25, 1949.
==Ministers of Commerce and Industry==
{| class=wikitable
!  ||Name|| Cabinet||From||To
|-
|1|| [[Takahashi Korekiyo|Korekiyo Takahashi]]|| [[Katō Takaaki|Katō]] ||1 April 1924|| 17 April 1925
|-
|2|| [[Noda Utarō]]|| [[Katō Takaaki|Katō]] ||17 April 1925|| 2 August 1925
|-
|3|| [[Kataoka Naoharu]]||[[Katō Takaaki|Katō]] <br> 1st [[Wakatsuki Reijirō|Wakatsuki]]|| 2 August 1925|| 14 September 1926
|-
|4||[[Fujisawa Ikunosuke]]  || 1st [[Wakatsuki Reijirō|Wakatsuki]]|| 14 September 1926|| 20 April 1927
|-
|5|| [[Nakahashi Tokugorō]]|| 1st [[Tanaka Giichi|Tanaka]]|| 20 April 1927|| 3 July 1929
|-
|6|| [[Tawara Magoichi]] ||  [[Osachi Hamaguchi|Hamaguchi]]|| 3 July 1929|| 14 April 1931
|-
|7|| [[Yukio Sakurauchi|Sakurauchi Yukio]] || 2nd [[Wakatsuki Reijirō|Wakatsuki]]|| 14 April 1931|| 13 December 1931
|-
|8|| [[Maeda Yonezo]] || [[Inukai Tsuyoshi|Inukai]]|| 13 December 1931|| 26 May 1932
|-
|9|| [[Kumakichi Nakajima|Nakajima Kumakichi]] || [[Saitō Makoto|Saitō]]|| 26 May 1932|| 9 February 1933
|-
|10||[[Jōji Matsumoto|Matsumoto Jōji]]|| [[Saitō Makoto|Saitō]]|| 9 February 1933|| 8 July 1934
|-
|11|| [[Machida Chūji]] || [[Keisuke Okada|Okada]]|| 8 July 1934|| 9 March 1936
|-
|12|| [[Kawasaki Takukichi]] || [[Kōki Hirota|Hirota]]|| 9 March 1936|| 27 March 1936
|-
|13|| [[Gōtarō Ogawa|Ogawa Gōtarō]] || [[Kōki Hirota|Hirota]]|| 27 March 1936|| 2 February 1937
|-
|14|| [[Takuo Godō|Godō Takuo]] || [[Senjūrō Hayashi|Hayashi]]|| 2 February 1937|| 4 June 1937
|-
|15|| [[Shinji Yoshino|Yoshino Shinji]] || 1st [[Fumimaro Konoe|Konoe]]|| 4 June 1937|| 26 May 1938
|-
|16|| [[Shigeaki Ikeda|Ikeda Shigeaki]] || 1st [[Fumimaro Konoe|Konoe]]|| 26 May 1938|| 5 January 1939
|-
|17|| [[Yoshiaki Hatta|Hatta Yoshiaki]] || [[Hiranuma Kiichirō|Hiranuma]]|| 5 January 1939|| 30 August 1939
|-
|18||Godō Takuo || [[Nobuyuki Abe|Abe]]|| 30 August 1939|| 16 October 1939
|-
|19||Godō Takuo || [[Nobuyuki Abe|Abe]]|| 16 October 1939|| 16 January 1940
|-
|20||[[Ginjirō Fujiwara|Fujiwara Ginjirō]]|| [[Yonai Mitsumasa|Yonai]] || 22 January 1940|| 5 July 1940
|-
|21||[[Ichizō Kobayashi|Kobayashi Ichizō]] || 2nd [[Fumimaro Konoe|Konoe]] ||22 July 1940|| 4 April 1941
|-
|22|| [[Teijirō Toyoda|Toyoda Teijirō]] || 2nd [[Fumimaro Konoe|Konoe]]|| 4 April 1941|| 18 July 1941
|-
|23||[[Sakonji Seizō]] ||  3rd [[Fumimaro Konoe|Konoe]] ||18 July 1941|| 18 October 1941
|-
|24||[[Nobusuke Kishi|Kishi Nobusuke]]  ||  [[Hideki Tōjō|Tōjō]] ||18 October 1941|| 8 October 1943
|-
|25|| [[Hideki Tōjō|Tōjō Hideki]] ||  [[Hideki Tōjō|Tōjō]]|| 8 October 1943|| 1 November 1943
|-
|
|-
|26|| [[Chikuhei Nakajima]]||  [[Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko|Higashikuni]]|| 26 August 1945|| 9 October 1945
|-
|27|| [[Sankurō Ogasawara]] ||  [[Kijūrō Shidehara|Shidehara]]|| 9 October 1945|| 2 May 1946
|-
|28|| [[Jirō Hoshijima]] || 1st [[Yoshida Shigeru|Yoshida]]|| 2 May 1946|| 31 January 1947
|-
|29|| [[Mitsujirō Ishii]] || 1st [[Yoshida Shigeru|Yoshida]]|| 31 January 1947|| 26 May 1947
|-
|30|| [[Chōsaburō Mizutani]] || [[Tetsu Katayama|Katayama]]|| 26 May 1947|| 10 March 1948
|-
|31|| Chōsaburō Mizutani || [[Hitoshi Ashida|Ashida]]|| 10 March 1948|| 15 October 1948
|-
|32|| [[Sanzō Ōya]] ||2nd [[Yoshida Shigeru|Yoshida]]|| 15 October 1948|| 16 February 1949
|-
|32|| [[Heitarō Inagaki]] ||2nd [[Yoshida Shigeru|Yoshida]]|| 16 February 1949|| 25 May 1949
|-
|}
==References==
*{{cite book | last = Harari  | first =  Ehud  | year = 1073 | title = The Politics of Labor Legislation in Japan | url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoflaborl00hara  | url-access = registration  | publisher = University of California Press | ISBN = 0-520-02264-5 }}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Former government ministries of Japan|Commerce and Industry]]
[[Category:Government of the Empire of Japan]]
[[Category:1925 establishments in Japan]]
[[Category:1949 disestablishments in Japan]]