# Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Japan)

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (農林水産省, Nōrin-suisan-shō) is a cabinet level ministry in the government of Japan responsible for oversight of the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries. Its acronym is MAFF. The current Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is Taku Etō.

## History

The Constitution of the Empire of Japan provided for the creation of a Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce (農商務省, Nōshōmu-shō), which was established in 1881, with Tani Tateki as its first minister. As an additional note, the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce was a division that served as the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
In 1925, the commerce functions were separated out into a separate Ministry of Commerce and Industry (商工省, Shōkō-shō), and the ministry was renamed the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (農林省, Nōrin-shō). The ministry was also given responsibility for oversight of the Factory Act of 1903, which provided regulations for work hours and worker safety in both industrial and agricultural industries.
From 1943 to 1945, when the Ministry of Commerce was abolished due to the nationalization of Japanese industry for the war effort of World War II against Allies of World War II, parts of that ministry reverted to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, which was again briefly named Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce (農商省, Nōshō-shō).
In 1978, the name of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry was expanded to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to better reflect the ministry's role in guaranteeing the Japanese public a safe food supply, and to protect producers and workers in the food production industries.

## Organization
### Internal Bureaus

* Minister's Secretariat (大臣官房)
* Food Safety and Consumer Affairs Bureau (消費・安全局)
* Export and International Affairs Bureau (輸出・国際局)
* Crop Production Bureau (農産局)
* Livestock Industry Bureau (畜産局)
* Management Improvement Bureau (経営局)
* Rural Development Bureau (農村振興局)

### Affiliated Agencies

* Forestry Agency (林野庁)
* Fisheries Agency (水産庁)

## List of ministers

The following list below is a list of notable ministers appointed since 1976.
| # | Agency Minister | Debut month | Retire month | Prime Minister |
| 1 | Zenkō Suzuki | December 1976 | November 1977 | Takeo Fukuda |
| 2 | Michio Watanabe | December 1978 | November 1979 | Masayoshi Ōhira |
| 5 | Kichirō Tazawa | November 1981 | November 1982 | Zenkō Suzuki |
| 9 | Tsutomu Hata | December 1985 | July 1986 | Yasuhiro Nakasone |
| 12 | Tsutomu Hata | December 1988 | June 1989 | Noboru Takeshita |
| 14 | Michihiko Kano | August 1989 | February 1990 | Toshiki Kaifu |
| 17 | Masami Tanabu | November 1991 | August 1993 | Kiichi Miyazawa |
| 22 | Hosei Norota | August 1995 | January 1996 | Tomiichi Murayama |
| 27 | Shōichi Nakagawa | August 1998 | October 1999 | Keizō Obuchi |
| 32 | Tsutomu Takebe | April 2001 | September 2002 | Junichiro Koizumi |
| 33 | Tadamori Ōshima | October 2002 | March 2003 | Junichiro Koizumi |
| 35 | Yoshiyuki Kamei | April 2003 | September 2004 | Junichiro Koizumi |
| 41 | Toshikatsu Matsuoka | September 2006 | May 2007 | Shinzō Abe |
| 45 | Masatoshi Wakabayashi | September 2007 | July 2008 | Yasuo Fukuda |
| 47 | Shigeru Ishiba | September 2008 | September 2009 | Tarō Asō |
| 53 | Yoshimasa Hayashi | December 2012 | September 2014 | Shinzō Abe |
| 57 | Hiroshi Moriyama | October 2015 | July 2016 | Shinzō Abe |
| 61 | Takamori Yoshikawa | October 2018 | September 2019 | Shinzō Abe |
| 63 | Taku Etō | September 2019 | September 2020 | Shinzō Abe |
| 64 | Kōtarō Nogami | September 2020 | October 2021 | Yoshihide Suga |
| 65 | Genjirō Kaneko | October 2021 | August 2022 | Fumio Kishida |
| 67 | Tetsuro Nomura | August 2022 | September 2023 | Fumio Kishida |
| 68 | Ichiro Miyashita | September 2023 | | Fumio Kishida |

## Functional activities

The primary function of the ministry is to set quality standards for food products, supervise commodity markets and food sales, and to undertake land reclamation and land improvement projects.