Which Japanese foreign minister signed the surrender document first for Japan in 1945?

Mamoru Shigemitsu signed the surrender document first for Japan at the 1945 ceremony.

Shigemitsu was Japan’s foreign minister and represented the Japanese government aboard USS Missouri on 2 September 1945. He signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Emperor and the Japanese government during the ceremony in Tokyo Bay.

General Yoshijiro Umezu, chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff, signed next on behalf of Japanese Imperial General Headquarters. Their signatures represented both the civilian government and the military command structure that had directed Japan’s wartime forces.

The Allied signing followed the Japanese signatures. General Douglas MacArthur signed first for the Allied powers, followed by Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz for the United States and representatives of other Allied nations. Shigemitsu later became Japan’s foreign minister again in the postwar period and helped represent Japan during the early occupation years.