The was a cabinet-level ministry in the government of the Empire of Japan from 1925 to 1947. It was created from the , and was briefly merged with the 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 post station maintenance which were formerly directly under the Prime Minister with the Bureau of Commerce formerly under the control of the 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 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, 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 Name CabinetFromTo1 Korekiyo Takahashi Katō 1 April 1924 17 April 19252 Noda Utarō Katō 17 April 1925 2 August 19253 Kataoka NaoharuKatō 1st Wakatsuki 2 August 1925 14 September 19264Fujisawa Ikunosuke 1st Wakatsuki 14 September 1926 20 April 19275 Nakahashi Tokugorō 1st Tanaka 20 April 1927 3 July 19296 Tawara Magoichi Hamaguchi 3 July 1929 14 April 19317 Sakurauchi Yukio 2nd Wakatsuki 14 April 1931 13 December 19318 Maeda Yonezo Inukai 13 December 1931 26 May 19329 Nakajima Kumakichi Saitō 26 May 1932 9 February 193310Matsumoto Jōji Saitō 9 February 1933 8 July 193411 Machida Chūji Okada 8 July 1934 9 March 193612 Kawasaki Takukichi Hirota 9 March 1936 27 March 193613 Ogawa Gōtarō Hirota 27 March 1936 2 February 193714 Godō Takuo Hayashi 2 February 1937 4 June 193715 Yoshino Shinji 1st Konoe 4 June 1937 26 May 193816 Ikeda Shigeaki 1st Konoe 26 May 1938 5 January 193917 Hatta Yoshiaki Hiranuma 5 January 1939 30 August 193918Godō Takuo Abe 30 August 1939 16 October 193919Godō Takuo Abe 16 October 1939 16 January 194020Fujiwara Ginjirō Yonai 22 January 1940 5 July 194021Kobayashi Ichizō 2nd Konoe 22 July 1940 4 April 194122 Toyoda Teijirō 2nd Konoe 4 April 1941 18 July 194123Sakonji Seizō 3rd Konoe 18 July 1941 18 October 194124Kishi Nobusuke Tōjō 18 October 1941 8 October 194325 Tōjō Hideki Tōjō 8 October 1943 1 November 194326 Chikuhei Nakajima Higashikuni 26 August 1945 9 October 194527 Sankurō Ogasawara Shidehara 9 October 1945 2 May 194628 Nirō Hoshijima 1st Yoshida 2 May 1946 31 January 194729 Mitsujirō Ishii 1st Yoshida 31 January 1947 26 May 194730 Chōsaburō Mizutani Katayama 26 May 1947 10 March 194831 Chōsaburō Mizutani Ashida 10 March 1948 15 October 194832 Sanzō Ōya 2nd Yoshida 15 October 1948 16 February 194932 Heitarō Inagaki 2nd Yoshida 16 February 1949 25 May 1949
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