Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japan)

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, abbreviated as MHLW, is one of the central ministries in Japan, equivalent to a combination of the welfare, health, and labor ministries in other countries. In January 2001, as part of the reorganization of the central government ministries, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Labour were merged to form the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. It oversees policy areas such as health, medical care, children, child-rearing, welfare, nursing care, employment, labor, and pensions. The mission of this ministry is "to ensure and improve the quality of life for the nation's citizens and to promote economic development, enhance social welfare, social security, public health, improve working conditions and labor environments, and ensure job opportunities," as well as "to assist in the repatriation of returnees, war-wounded soldiers, bereaved families of war dead, families of those who have not returned, and to handle the remaining affairs of the former