Minoru Iwata (岩田 稔, born October 31, 1983) is a Japanese baseball pitcher from Moriguchi, Osaka, Japan and he currently plays for the Hanshin Tigers.

[1] His treating doctor allowed him to continue playing baseball as part of a balanced lifestyle necessary to stabilize the symptoms of diabetes.

In his debut in 2006, Iwata allowed four runs in 3 innings of work and lost his only game in the season.

In 2008, he was third in voting for the 2008 Central League Rookie of the Year Award, trailing Tetsuya Yamaguchi and Hayato Sakamoto after going 10-10 with a 3.28 ERA and 101 strikeouts.

He was selected to play for Japan in the 2009 World Baseball Classic replacing Hiroki Kuroda due to his shoulder problems.