Cabinet of Japan

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The Cabinet of Japan (内閣, Naikaku) is the executive branch of the government of Japan. It consists of the Prime Minister, who is appointed by the Emperor after being designated by the National Diet, and up to nineteen other members, called Ministers of State. The Prime Minister is designated by the Diet, and the remaining ministers are appointed and dismissed by the Prime Minister. The Cabinet is collectively responsible to the Diet and must resign if a motion of no confidence is adopted by the Diet.

Appointment

Under the constitution, Cabinet ministers are appointed after the selection of the Prime Minister. A majority of the Cabinet, including the Prime Minister, must be members of the Diet, and all members must be civilians. Under the Cabinet Law, the number of Cabinet Ministers (excluding the Prime Minister) must be fourteen or less, but this may be increased to nineteen if a special need arises. In the event that the Cabinet collectively resigns it continues to exercise its functions until the appointment of a new Prime Minister. While they are in office, legal action may not be taken against Cabinet ministers without the consent of the Prime Minister. The Cabinet must resign en masse in the following circumstances:

• When a motion of no confidence is adopted, or a vote of confidence defeated, by the House of Representatives, unless there is a dissolution of the house within ten days.
• Upon the first convocation of the Diet after a general election to the House of Representatives (even if the same Prime Minister is to be re-elected and appointed, and every other minister is to be reappointed).
• When the position Prime Minister becomes vacant, or the Prime Minister declares his intention to resign.

Powers

The Cabinet exercises two kinds of power. Some of its powers are nominally exercised by the Emperor with the binding "advice and approval" of the Cabinet. Other powers are explicitly vested in the Cabinet. Contrary to the practice in many constitutional monarchies, the Emperor is not even the nominal Chief Executive. Instead, the Constitution explicitly vests executive authority in the Cabinet. Hence, nearly all of the day-to-day work of governing is done by the Cabinet.

In practice, much of the Cabinet's authority is exercised by the Prime Minister. Under the Constitution, the Prime Minister exercises "control and supervision" over the executive branch, and no law or Cabinet order can take effect without the Prime Minister's countersignature (and the Emperor's promulgation). While Cabinet Ministers in most other parliamentary democracies theoretically have some freedom of action (within the limits of cabinet collective responsibility), the Japanese Cabinet is effectively an extension of the Prime Minister's authority.

A paulownia flower pattern is routinely considered to be a symbol of the Japanese prime minister and cabinet.

Powers exercised via the Emperor

• Promulgation of amendments to the laws, cabinet orders and treaties.
• Convocation of the Diet.
• Dissolution of the House of Representatives.
• Proclamation of general elections to the Diet.
• Receiving of foreign ambassadors and ministers.
• Conferring of honours.

Explicit powers

• Execution of the law.
• Conduct of foreign affairs.
• Conclusion of treaties (with the consent of the Diet).
• Administration of the civil service.
• Drafting of the budget (which must be adopted by the Diet).
• Adoption of cabinet orders.
• Granting of general amnesty, special amnesty, commutation of punishment, reprieve, and restoration of rights.
• Signing of laws or cabinet orders by the relevant Minister of State and countersigned by the Prime Minister.
• Appointment of the associate justices of the Supreme Court of Japan (except for the Chief Justice, who is designated by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Emperor).
• Appointment of vice-ministers (who are nominated by their respective Minister to whom they will report).

Current Cabinet of Japan

The members of the current cabinet of Japan headed by the Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Shinzō Abe as of 11 April 2019 are as follows:

Office	Incumbent
Prime Minister	Shinzō Abe
Deputy Prime Minister Minister of Finance Minister of State for Financial Services Minister of State for Overcoming Deflation	Tarō Asō
Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Minister of State for the Social Security and Tax Number System	Masatoshi Ishida
Minister of Justice	Takashi Yamashita
Minister of Foreign Affairs	Tarō Kōno
Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister of State for Education Rebuilding	Masahiko Shibayama
Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Minister for Working-style Reform	Takumi Nemoto
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries	Takamori Yoshikawa
Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Minister of State for Industrial Competitiveness Minister of State for Economic Cooperation with Russia Minister of State for the Response to the Economic Impact Caused by the Nuclear Accident at Fukushima Minister of State for the Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corporation	Hiroshige Sekō
Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister of State for Water Cycle Policy	Keiichi Ishii
Minister of the Environment Minister of State for Nuclear Emergency Preparedness	Yoshiaki Harada
Minister of Defense	Takeshi Iwaya
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minister of State for Mitigating the Impact of U.S. Forces in Okinawa	Yoshihide Suga
Minister for Reconstruction Minister of State for Comprehensive Policy Coordination for Revival from the Nuclear Accident at Fukushima	Hiromichi Watanabe
Chairperson of the National Public Safety Commission Minister of State for Building National Resilience Minister of State for Disaster Management	Junzo Yamamoto
Minister for Promoting Dynamic Engagement of All Citizens Minister of State for Administrative Reform Minister of State for Civil Service Reform Minister of State for Territorial Issues Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety Minister of State for Measures for the Declining Birthrate Minister of State for Ocean Policy	Mitsuhiro Miyakoshi
Minister of State for Information Technology Policy Minister of State for the Cool Japan Strategy Minister of State for Intellectual Property Strategy Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy Minister of State for Space Policy	Takuya Hirai
Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister of State for Social Security Reform Minister of State for TPP and Japan-U.S. Trade Negotiations	Toshimitsu Motegi
Minister of State for Regional Revitalization Minister of State for Regulatory Reform Minister of State for Gender Equality Minister of State for Women's Empowerment	Satsuki Katayama
Minister of State for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games	Shun'ichi Suzuki

See also

• Prime Minister's Official Residence (Japan)
• List of female cabinet ministers of Japan
• Politics of Japan
• Cabinet

References

• The Japan Times. "Cabinet Profiles" [since 2008]. The Japan Times Online. Accessed 13 October 2012 from: https://web.archive.org/web/20040623111921/http://www.japantimes.com/cabinets.htm
• Cabinet Secretariat, Office of Cabinet Public Relations, Japan (2003). Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet. Retrieved 28 Oct. 2003 from: http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/index-e.html
• Hunter, Janet (1984). Concise Dictionary of Modern Japanese History. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, pp. 266–324, Appendix 5: Japanese Cabinets Since the Introduction of the Cabinet System in 1885 [to 1980].

External links

• Official Website of the Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet, Third Reshuffled Noda Cabinet
• List of Japanese cabinets (in Japanese only, Cabinets since 1996 in English)
• Cabinet Office
• Cabinet Secretariat (in Japanese only)
• Cabinet Legislation Bureau