Senior Second Rank Minami Hiroshi
南 弘
15th Governor-General of Taiwan
In office 2 March 1932 – 26 May 1932
Monarch	Hirohito
Preceded by	Ōta Masahiro
Succeeded by	Nakagawa Kenzō
Minister of Communications
In office 26 May 1932 – 8 July 1934
Prime Minister	Saitō Makoto
Preceded by	Chūzō Mitsuji
Succeeded by	Tokonami Takejirō
Governor of Fukuoka Prefecture
In office 1 June 1913 – 16 April 1914
Monarch	Taishō
Preceded by	Kawaji Toshiatsu
Succeeded by	Taniguchi Tomegoro
Chief Cabinet Secretary
In office 30 August 1911 – 21 December 1912
Prime Minister	Saionji Kinmochi
Preceded by	Shibata Kamon
Succeeded by	Tasuku Egi
In office 4 January 1908 – 14 July 1908
Prime Minister	Saionji Kinmochi
Preceded by	Bin-ichi Ishiwatari
Succeeded by	Shibata Kamon
Member of the Privy Council
In office 24 December 1936 – 8 February 1946
Monarch	Hirohito
Member of the House of Peers
In office 3 July 1912 – 28 December 1936 Nominated by the Emperor
Personal details
Born	(1869-11-13)13 November 1869 Himi, Toyama, Japan
Died	8 February 1946(1946-02-08) (aged 76) Tokyo, Japan
Party	Rikken Seiyūkai
Alma mater	Tokyo Imperial University

Hiroshi Minami (南 弘, Minami Hiroshi; 13 November 1869 – 8 February 1946) was a Japanese bureaucrat, politician and cabinet minister in Taishō and early Shōwa period Japan.

Minami was born as Iwama Tetsuro, the younger son of a wealthy farming family in Himi, Toyama, who had served for three generations in the Toyama prefectural assembly. He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University with a legal degree and passed his civil service examinations in 1896. Afterwards, he married the eldest daughter of Minami Heikichi, the chairman of the Toyama Prefectural Assembly, and changed his name to Minami Hiroshi.

After serving in several posts within the Prime Minister's office and the Home Ministry, Minami was appointed Chief Cabinet Secretary under the First Saionji Cabinet in 1908, and served in that post again from 1911 to 1912. In December 1912, he was appointed to a seat in the House of Peers. From 1913 to 1914, he was appointed Governor of Fukuoka Prefecture. In 1918, he was appointed Undersecretary for Education.

On 2 March 1932, Minami became Governor-General of Taiwan,^[1] but served in that post for less than three months before being replaced on 26 May, following the May 15 Incident to become Communications Minister in the Saitō Cabinet. He was the first cabinet minister to have been appointed from Toyama Prefecture, and served in this post for two years and two months.

In 1937, Minami proposed that a new cabinet-level ministry be created, separating out the health care and social insurance / pensions portions of the Home Ministry. This “Ministry of Welfare” (the predecessor of the modern Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare) was realized in 1938, and Minami is credited with coining the kanji used in its name.

In 1943, Minami served as chairman of the National Language Council, a government body established to standardize the Tōyō kanji and Modern kana usage to simplify education.^[2] He was also a member of the Privy Council, where he earned the enmity of the military by his outspoken remarks against Japanese militarism.

Minami died of carbon monoxide poisoning on 8 February 1946 while in the middle of a meeting.

• Media related to Hiroshi Minami at Wikimedia Commons