Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japan) Information & Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japan) Links at HealthHaven.com

Office building

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (厚生労働省, Kōseirōdōshō^?) is a cabinet level ministry of the Japanese government. It is commonly known as Kōrō-shō (厚労省) in Japan. This ministry provides regulations on maximum residue limits for agricultural chemicals in foods, basic food and drug regulations, standards for foods, food additives, etc.

It was formed with the merger of the former Ministry of Health and Welfare or Kōsei-shō (厚生省) and the Ministry of Labour or Rōdō-shō (労働省).

The top of the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, a member of the Cabinet.The current minister is Akira Nagatsuma, since 16 September 2009.

Published ministry employee and outspoken critic Moriyo Kimura states that the ministry's medical officers (ikei gikan) are "corrupt and self-serving." Kimura states that the officers, who number 250, have little experience and see no patients nor practice medicine after being hired by the ministry. Thus, says Kimura, Japan's public health policies lag behind other developed countries, by "decades."^[1]