Cabinet of Japan

Cabinet of Japan
Native name	内閣
Romanized name	Naikaku
Founded	22 December 1885
Headquarters	Japan
Key people	Fumio Kishida (Prime Minister); Naruhito (Emperor)
Owner	Government of Japan

The prime minister's Official Residence is where the Cabinet is located

The Cabinet of Japan (Japanese: 内閣, Hepburn: Naikaku) is the chief executive body 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[edit]

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. If 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 of prime minister becomes vacant, or the prime minister declares his intention to resign.

Powers[edit]

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.

According to Article 75 of the Constitution, Ministers of State are not subject to legal action without the consent of the prime minister during their tenure of office.

The Paulownia Seal is routinely considered to be the symbol of the Japanese prime minister, cabinet, and government at large.

The official seal of the Japanese cabinet

Powers exercised via the emperor[edit]

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[edit]

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).

List of cabinets of Japan[edit]

Under edicts (1885-1947)[edit]

Cabinets between 1885 and 1947 were formed under the cabinet edicts of 1885 and 1889. Cabinets were individually responsible to the emperor, and prime ministers were appointed.

Oligarchic "transcendent" (non-/anti-partisan) cabinets

Interwar period / "Taishō democracy" party cabinets

19. Hara
20. Takahashi
21. To. Katō
22. Yamamoto II
23. Kiyoura
24. Ta. Katō
25. Wakatsuki I
26. G. Tanaka
27. Hamaguchi
28. Wakatsuki II
29. Inukai

Wartime "national unity" cabinets

30. Saitō
31. Okada
32. Hirota
33. Hayashi
34. Konoe I
35. Hiranuma
36. N. Abe
37. Yonai
38. Konoe II
39. Konoe III
40. Tōjō
41. Koiso
42. K. Suzuki

Under Allied occupation

Under constitution (1947-present)[edit]

Cabinets since 1947 were formed under the Constitution of Japan. Cabinets were collectively responsible to the National Diet, and prime ministers were elected.

Occupation period, multi-party system

LDP dominance

"Lost decades" coalition cabinets

Current cabinet[edit]

The current cabinet was formed on 4 October 2021 (reorganized on 10 November 2021), and is headed by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Parties
	Liberal Democratic
	Komeito


R	Member of the House of Representatives
C	Member of the House of Councillors

Citation of this table: List of Kishida Cabinet Members^[1]

Second Kishida Cabinet (10 November 2021 - present)
Portfolio	Minister		Constituency	Note
Prime Minister	Fumio Kishida	R	Hiroshima 1st
Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications	Yasushi Kaneko	R	Kumamoto 4th
Minister of Justice	Yoshihisa Furukawa	R	Miyazaki 3rd
Minister for Foreign Affairs	Yoshimasa Hayashi	R	Yamaguchi 3rd	^[2]
Minister of Finance Minister of State for Financial Services Minister in charge of Overcoming Deflation	Shun'ichi Suzuki	R	Iwate 2nd
Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister in charge of Education Rebuilding	Shinsuke Suematsu	C	Hyogo at-large
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries	Genjirō Kaneko	C	Nagasaki at-large
Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare	Shigeyuki Goto	R	Nagano 4th
Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Minister in charge of Industrial Competitiveness Minister for Economic Cooperation with Russia Minister in charge of the Response to the Economic Impact caused by the Nuclear Accident Minister of State for the Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corporation	Koichi Hagiuda	R	Tokyo 24th
Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister in charge of Water Cycle Policy	Tetsuo Saito	R	Hiroshima 3rd
Minister of the Environment Minister of State for Nuclear Emergency Preparedness	Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi	R	Hyogo 12th
Minister of Defense	Nobuo Kishi	R	Yamaguchi 2nd
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minister in charge of Mitigating the Impact of U.S. Forces in Okinawa Minister in charge of the Abductions Issue Minister in charge of Promoting Vaccinations	Hirokazu Matsuno	R	Chiba 3rd
Minister for Digital Transformation Minister in charge of Administrative Reform Minister of State for Regulatory Reform	Karen Makishima	R	Kanagawa 17th
Minister of Reconstruction Minister in charge of Comprehensive Policy Coordination for Revival from the Nuclear Accident at Fukushima Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs	Kosaburo Nishime	R	Okinawa 4th
Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission Minister in charge of Building National Resilience Minister in charge of Territorial Issues Minister in charge of Civil Service Reform Minister of State for Disaster Management and Ocean Policy	Satoshi Ninoyu	C	Kyoto at-large
Minister of State for Regional Revitalization Minister of State for Measures for Declining Birthrate Minister of State for Gender Equality Minister in charge of Women's Empowerment Minister in charge of Policies Related to Children Minister in charge of Measures for Loneliness and Isolation	Seiko Noda	R	Gifu 1st
Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization Minister in charge of New Capitalism Minister in charge of Measures for Novel Coronavirus Disease and Health Crisis Management Minister in charge of Social Security Reform Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy	Daishiro Yamagiwa	R	Kanagawa 18th
Minister in charge of Economic Security Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy Minister of State for Space Policy	Takayuki Kobayashi	R	Chiba 2nd
Minister for the World Expo 2025 Minister in charge of Digital Garden City Nation Vision Minister in charge of Cohesive Society Minister in charge of Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety Minister of State for "Cool Japan" Strategy Minister of State for the Intellectual Property Strategy	Kenji Wakamiya	R	Tokyo PR block

References[edit]

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
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[edit]

Official Website of the prime minister of Japan and His Cabinet
List of successive Japanese cabinets (in Japanese)
Previous Cabinets (Since 1996) and list of previous prime ministers (Since 1885) (in English)
Cabinet Office
Cabinet Secretariat (in Japanese only)
Cabinet Legislation Bureau

Notes[edit]

^ "List of Ministers". The Cabinet of Japan Prime Minister. Cabinet Public Affairs Office, Cabinet Secretariat. 2021-11-10. Archived from the original on 2021-11-11. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
^ "PM Kishida to appoint Hayashi as foreign minister | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News". NHK WORLD. Retrieved 2021-11-06.

[List_of_Ministers_November_10,_2021-1] "List of Ministers". The Cabinet of Japan Prime Minister. Cabinet Public Affairs Office, Cabinet Secretariat. 2021-11-10. Archived from the original on 2021-11-11. Retrieved 2021-11-11.

[2] "PM Kishida to appoint Hayashi as foreign minister | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News". NHK WORLD. Retrieved 2021-11-06.

[1]

[2]

v t e Cabinets of Japan
Empire of Japan (1885–1947)	Itō I Kuroda Sanjō caretaker Yamagata I Matsukata I Itō II Matsukata II Itō III Ōkuma I Yamagata II Itō IV Katsura I Saionji I Katsura II Saionji II Katsura III Yamamoto I Ōkuma II Terauchi Hara Takahashi Katō To. Yamamoto II Kiyoura Katō Ta. Wakatsuki I Tanaka G. Hamaguchi Wakatsuki II Inukai Saitō Okada Hirota Hayashi Konoe I Hiranuma N. Abe Yonai Konoe II Konoe III Tōjō Koiso K. Suzuki Higashikuni Shidehara Yoshida I
Japan (1947–present)	Katayama Ashida Yoshida II Yoshida III Yoshida IV Yoshida V I. Hatoyama I I. Hatoyama II I. Hatoyama III Ishibashi Kishi I Kishi II Ikeda I Ikeda II Ikeda III Satō I Satō II Satō III K. Tanaka I K. Tanaka II Miki T. Fukuda Ōhira I Ōhira II Z. Suzuki Nakasone I Nakasone II Nakasone III Takeshita Uno Kaifu I Kaifu II Miyazawa Hosokawa Hata Murayama Hashimoto I Hashimoto II Obuchi Mori I Mori II Koizumi I Koizumi II Koizumi III S. Abe I Y. Fukuda Asō Y. Hatoyama Kan Noda S. Abe II S. Abe III S. Abe IV Suga Kishida I Kishida II

v t e Japanese government ministries and agencies
	Cabinet
	Cabinet Secretariat Cabinet Legislation Bureau National Security Council National Personnel Authority
	Cabinet Office Imperial Household Agency Fair Trade Commission National Public Safety Commission and National Police Agency Personal Information Protection Commission Financial Services Agency Consumer Affairs Agency Casino Regulatory Commission Digital Agency Reconstruction Agency
	Internal Affairs and Communications (List) Justice (List) Foreign Affairs (List) Finance (List) Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (List) Health, Labour, and Welfare (List) Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (List) Economy, Trade and Industry (List) Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (List) Environment (List) Defense (List)
Board of Audit (constitutionally independent)

v t e National cabinets of Asia
Sovereign states	Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Cambodia China Cyprus East Timor (Timor-Leste) Egypt Georgia India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Japan Jordan Kazakhstan North Korea South Korea Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Myanmar Nepal Oman Pakistan Philippines Qatar Russia Saudi Arabia Singapore Sri Lanka Syria Tajikistan Thailand Turkey Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen
States with limited recognition	Abkhazia Artsakh Northern Cyprus Palestine South Ossetia Taiwan
Dependencies and other territories	British Indian Ocean Territory Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Hong Kong Macau
Category Asia portal

Authority control
General	VIAF 1 WorldCat (via VIAF)
National libraries	Japan

Cabinet of Japan

Contents

Appointment[edit]