Mizuno Rentarō (水野錬太郎, 3 February 1868 – 25 November 1949) was a statesman, politician and cabinet minister in Taishō and early Shōwa period Japan.

He was one of the Japanese delegates to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works in Switzerland, which resulted in the promulgation of the initial version of the Copyright law of Japan in 1899.

Mizuno was regarded as particularly suited for this role, as he was familiar with the security apparatus for monitoring Korean residents in Japan and had experience in the suppression of civil disturbance due to his term as Home Minister during the Rice Riots of 1918.

[1] During his tenure in Korea, he greatly expanded the telephone infrastructure of the country, which had economic as well as security benefits,[2] On December 25, 1920 Mizuno was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.

Mizuno returned to the Cabinet as Home Minister again under the Katō administration from 1922 to 1923, turning the post over to Gotō Shinpei the day after the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake.