Minister for Foreign Affairs (Japan)
chief executive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan
The minister for foreign affairs (外務大臣, Gaimu Daijin) is a member of the cabinet of Japan and is the leader and chief executive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The minister is responsible for implementing Japan's foreign policy and is also a statutory member of the National Security Council. The minister is nominated by the prime minister and is appointed by the emperor of Japan.
Since the end of the allied occupation of Japan, the position has been one of the most powerful in the cabinet, as Japan's economic interests have long relied on foreign relations. The recent efforts of former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe to establish a more interventionist foreign policy have also heightened the importance of the position.
The current minister for foreign affairs is Toshimitsu Motegi, who took office on October 21, 2025.
List of ministers for foreign affairs
Italics indicates subject served as Acting Foreign Minister.
Bold indicates subject served concurrently as Prime Minister for a period of time.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Minister for Foreign Affairs (Japan)” as chief executive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as chief executive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1355043. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2025.
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This entry incorporates text from “Minister for Foreign Affairs (Japan)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.