Minister of Justice (Japan)

Minister of Justice
Emblem of the Government of Japan
Incumbent Hideki Makihara since 1 October 2024
Ministry of Justice
Style	His Excellency
Member of	Cabinet of Japan
Reports to	Prime Minister of Japan
Appointer	Prime Minister of Japan attested to by the Emperor
Formation	August 1, 1952 (1952-08-01)
Deputy	State Minister of Justice
Salary	¥20,916,000

The Minister of Justice (法務大臣, Houmu Daijin) 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 Hideki Makihara, who took office on 1 October 2024.

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.

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

  Independent   Liberal Democratic   Japan Renewal   Democratic Socialist

Justice minister				Term of office			Prime minister
#	Portrait		Name	Took office	Left office	Days
1			Tokutaro Kimura	August 1, 1952	October 30, 1952	90		Shigeru Yoshida
2			Takeru Inukai	October 30, 1952	April 22, 1954	539
3			Ryogo Kato	April 22, 1954	June 19, 1954	58
4			Naoshi Ohara	June 19, 1954	December 10, 1954	174
5			Shiro Hamamura	December 10, 1954	November 22, 1955	347		Ichirō Hatoyama
6			Ryozo Makino	November 22, 1955	December 23, 1956	397
7			Umekichi Nakamura	December 23, 1956	July 10, 1957	199		Tanzan Ishibashi
								Nobusuke Kishi
8			Toshiki Karasa	July 10, 1957	June 12, 1958	337
9			Kiichi Aichi	June 12, 1958	June 18, 1959	371
10			Hiroya Ino	June 18, 1959	July 19, 1960	397
11			Tetsuzo Kojima	July 19, 1960	December 8, 1960	142		Hayato Ikeda
12			Koshiro Ueki	December 8, 1960	July 18, 1962	587
13			Kunio Nakagaki	July 18, 1962	July 18, 1963	365
14			Okinori Kaya	July 18, 1963	July 18, 1964	366
15			Hitoshi Takahashi	July 18, 1964	June 3, 1965	320
								Eisaku Satō
16			Mitsujirō Ishii	June 3, 1965	December 3, 1966	548
17			Isaji Tanaka	December 3, 1966	November 25, 1967	357
18			Bunzo Akama	November 25, 1967	November 30, 1968	371
19			Kichinosuke Saigo	November 30, 1968	January 14, 1970	410
20			Takeji Kobayashi	January 14, 1970	February 9, 1971	391
21			Daisuke Akita	February 9, 1971	February 17, 1971	8
22 (12)			Koshiro Ueki	February 17, 1971	July 5, 1971	138
23			Shigesaburō Maeo	July 5, 1971	July 7, 1972	368
24			Yuichi Kori	July 7, 1972	December 22, 1972	168		Kakuei Tanaka
25			Isaji Tanaka	December 22, 1972	November 25, 1973	338
26			Umekichi Nakamura	November 25, 1973	November 11, 1974	351
27			Seigo Hamano	November 11, 1974	December 9, 1974	28
28			Osamu Inaba	December 9, 1974	December 24, 1976	746		Takeo Miki
29			Hajime Fukuda	December 24, 1976	October 5, 1977	285		Takeo Fukuda
30			Mitsuo Setayama	October 5, 1977	December 7, 1978	428
31			Yoshimi Furui	December 7, 1978	November 9, 1979	337		Masayoshi Ōhira
32			Tadao Kuraishi	November 9, 1979	July 17, 1980	251
33			Seisuke Okuno	July 17, 1980	November 30, 1980	502		Zenkō Suzuki
34			Michita Sakata	November 30, 1980	November 27, 1982	727
35			Hatano Akira	November 27, 1982	December 27, 1983	395		Yasuhiro Nakasone
36			Eisaku Sumi	December 27, 1983	November 1, 1984	310
37			Hitoshi Shimazaki	November 1, 1984	December 28, 1985	422
38			Seigo Suzuki	December 28, 1985	July 22, 1986	206
39			Kaname Endo	July 22, 1986	November 6, 1987	472
40			Yukio Hasegawa	November 6, 1987	December 27, 1988	416		Noboru Takeshita
41			Takashi Hasegawa	December 27, 1998	December 30, 1998	3
42			Masami Takatsuji	December 30, 1998	June 3 1989	185
43			Kazuo Tanikawa	June 3 1989	August 10, 1989	38		Sōsuke Uno
44			Masao Goto	August 10, 1989	February 28, 1990	202		Toshiki Kaifu
45			Shin Hasegawa	February 28, 1990	September 13, 1990	197
46			Seiroku Kajiyama	September 13, 1990	December 29, 1990	107
47			Megumi Sato	December 29, 1990	November 5, 1991	676
48			Takashi Tawara	November 5, 1991	December 12, 1992	403		Kiichi Miyazawa
49			Masaharu Gotōda	December 12, 1992	August 9, 1993	240
50			Akira Mikazuki	August 9, 1993	April 28, 1994	262		Morihiro Hosokawa
52			Nagano Shigeto	April 28, 1994	May 8, 1994	10		Tsutomu Hata
53			Hiroshi Nakai	May 8, 1994	June 30, 1994	53
54			Isao Maeda	June 30, 1994	August 8, 1995	404		Tomiichi Murayama
55			Tomoharu Tazawa	August 8, 1995	October 8, 1995	61
56			Hiroshi Miyazawa	October 8, 1995	January 11, 1996	95
57			Ritsuko Nagao	January 11, 1996	November 7, 1996	301		Ryutaro Hashimoto
58			Isao Matsuura	November 7, 1996	September 11, 1997	308
59			Kokichi Shimoinaba	September 11, 1997	July 30, 1998	322
60			Shozaburo Nakamura	July 30, 1998	March 8, 1999	221		Keizō Obuchi
61			Takao Jinnouchi	March 8, 1999	October 5, 1999	211
62			Hideo Usui	October 5, 1999	July 4, 2000	273
								Yoshirō Mori
63			Okiharu Yasuoka	July 4, 2000	December 5, 2000	154
64			Masahiko Komura	December 5, 2000	January 6, 2001	32

2001–present

  Liberal Democratic
  Democratic

Justice minister				Term of office			Prime minister
#	Portrait		Name	Took office	Left office	Days
65 (64)			Masahiko Kōmura	January 6, 2001	April 26, 2001	110		Yoshirō Mori
66			Mayumi Moriyama	April 26, 2001	September 22, 2003	879		Junichiro Koizumi
67			Daizō Nozawa	September 22, 2003	September 27, 2004	371
68			Chieko Nōno	September 27, 2004	October 31, 2005	399
69			Seiken Sugiura	October 31, 2005	September 26, 2006	330
70			Jinen Nagase	September 26, 2006	August 27, 2007	335		Shinzō Abe
71			Kunio Hatoyama	August 27, 2007	August 2, 2008	341
								Yasuo Fukuda
72			Okiharu Yasuoka	August 2, 2008	September 24, 2008	53
73			Eisuke Mori	September 24, 2008	September 16, 2009	357		Taro Aso
74			Keiko Chiba	September 16, 2009	September 7, 2010	356		Yukio Hatoyama
								Naoto Kan
75			Minoru Yanagida	September 7, 2010	November 22, 2010	76
76			Yoshito Sengoku	November 22, 2010	January 14, 2011	53
77			Satsuki Eda	January 14, 2011	September 2, 2011	231
78			Hideo Hiraoka	September 2, 2011	January 13, 2012	133		Yoshihiko Noda
79			Toshio Ogawa	January 13, 2012	June 4, 2012	143
16			Makoto Taki	June 4, 2012	October 1, 2012	119
17			Keishu Tanaka	October 1, 2012	October 23, 2012	22
18 (16)			Makoto Taki	October 23, 2012	December 26, 2012	64
19			Sadakazu Tanigaki	December 26, 2012	September 3, 2014	616		Shinzō Abe
20			Midori Matsushima	September 3, 2014	October 20, 2014	47
21			Yōko Kamikawa	October 20, 2014	October 7, 2015	352
22			Mitsuhide Iwaki	October 7, 2015	August 3, 2016	301
23			Katsutoshi Kaneda	August 3, 2016	August 3, 2017	365
24 (21)			Yōko Kamikawa	August 3, 2017	October 2, 2018	425
25			Takashi Yamashita	October 2, 2018	September 11, 2019	344
26			Katsuyuki Kawai	September 11, 2019	October 31, 2019	50
27			Masako Mori	October 31, 2019	September 16, 2020	321
28 (21)			Yōko Kamikawa	September 16, 2020	October 4, 2021	383		Yoshihide Suga
29			Yoshihisa Furukawa	October 4, 2021	10 August 2022	310		Fumio Kishida
30			Yasuhiro Hanashi	10 August 2022	11 November 2022	93
31			Ken Saitō	November 11, 2022	September 13, 2023	306
32			Ryuji Koizumi	September 13, 2023	October 1, 2024	384
33			Hideki Makihara	October 1, 2024	Incumbent	36		Shigeru Ishiba