Minoru Genda (源田 実, Genda Minoru^?, 16 August 1904 – 15 August 1989) was a well-known Japanese military aviator and politician. He is best known for planning the Pearl Harbor attack.

Minoru Genda was the second son of a farmer from Hiroshima. Two brothers were graduates of Tokyo University, another brother graduated from Chiba Medical College, and his youngest brother entered the Army Academy. Graduating from the First Hiroshima Middle School, Genda entered the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy with the goal of becoming a fighter pilot and graduated in November 1929 at the head of his class.

For the next six years Genda moved rapidly from one operational and staff air assignment to another. He was assigned to the aircraft carrier Akagi in 1931. He was well known in the navy and in 1932 Genda formed an aerobatic demonstration team at Yokosuka, leading a division of biplanes around the country, conducting demonstrations and aerobatics. Known as "Genda's Flying Circus", the team, consisting of Genda, Yoshita Kobayashi and Motoharu Okamura, using Nakajima A2N Type 90 fighters, was part of a public relations campaign to promote naval aviation. He gained combat experience with the Second Combined Air Group during the Second Sino-Japanese War from the autumn of 1937, was senior flight instructor for the Yokosuka Air Group in 1938.