Who signed Japan's formal surrender document as its foreign minister aboard USS Missouri?

Mamoru Shigemitsu signed Japan's formal surrender document as its foreign minister aboard USS Missouri.

Shigemitsu signed on behalf of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese government at the September 2, 1945, ceremony. He used a cane because he had lost a leg in an assassination attempt in Shanghai in 1932. His presence represented Japan's civilian government, while General Yoshijirō Umezu signed separately for the Japanese armed forces.

Shigemitsu had served as Japan's foreign minister during the final phase of the war. He was one of the Japanese delegates who formally acknowledged the Allied conditions and signed the instrument before the Allied representatives added their signatures.

He is sometimes confused with Shigenori Tōgō, another wartime Japanese foreign minister. Tōgō served during much of the final diplomatic crisis, but Shigemitsu was the official who signed the surrender document aboard Missouri.