Kuniaki Koiso
In 1940, he was asked to join the cabinet of Mitsumasa Yonai as Minister of Commerce and Industry. In 1942, he was nominated a special advisor to the cabinet of Prime Minister Tōjō, with oversight over naval procurement, and in 1943 joined the Tōjō cabinet as a minister without portfolio. In 1944, under Tōjō’s successor, Kuniaki Koiso, he became Minister of Munitions. With the war situation quickly becoming critical, Fujiwara devoted his efforts to increasing the production of aircraft to defend Japan against the increasing Allied bombing attacks. He was astonished to find that aircraft built at Mitsubishi’s Nagoya works were being transported to the nearest airfields by ox cart.