Yonezō Maeda (前田 米蔵, Maeda Yonezō, 17 February 1888 – 18 March 1954) was a politician and cabinet minister in the pre-war Empire of Japan. Maeda was a native of Wakayama Prefecture, and a graduate of the Tokyo Hōgakuin (the predecessor to the law school of Chuo University). He received his law degree in 1903. He was elected to the Lower House of the Diet of Japan in the 1917 General Election, under the Rikken Seiyūkai banner, and was subsequently reelected to the same seat during the next nine elections. Maeda served as Secretary-General of the party in 1925. In 1927, Prime Minister Tanaka Giichi picked Maeda as his Director-General of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau. Maeda subsequent was appointed Minister of Commerce and Industry under the Inukai administration in 1931. He returned to th