Cabinet of Japan

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.

The modern Cabinet was established in December 1885. It replaced the Daijō-kan, the imperial administration since the Nara period, that had been reactivated after the Meiji restoration as its modernized variation. Under the Meiji Constitution, the Prime Minister and the cabinet were appointed by and responsible to the Emperor. Since the Constitution of Japan came into effect in 1947, the cabinet was reformed, with the Prime Minister being elected by the Diet and the cabinet being responsible to 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 every minister will then 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, while in practice exercised in accordance with the binding instructions of the Cabinet, are nominally exercised by the Emperor with the "advice and approval" of the Cabinet. Its other class of powers are exercised by the Cabinet explicitly. Contrary to the practice in many constitutional monarchies, the Emperor of Japan is not even the nominal Chief Executive. Instead, the Constitution explicitly vests executive authority in 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 regimes 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 28 January 2016 are as follows:^[1]

Office	Incumbent
Prime Minister	Shinzō Abe
Deputy Prime Minister Minister of Finance Minister of State for Financial Services Minister in charge of Overcoming Deflation	Tarō Asō
Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications	Sanae Takaichi
Minister of Justice	Mitsuhide Iwaki
Minister of Foreign Affairs	Fumio Kishida
Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister in charge of Education Rebuilding	Hiroshi Hase
Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare	Yasuhisa Shiozaki
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries	Hiroshi Moriyama
Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Minister in charge of Industrial Competitiveness 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	Motoo Hayashi
Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister in charge of Water Cycle Policy	Keiichi Ishii
Minister of the Environment Minister of State for Nuclear Emergency Preparedness	Tamayo Marukawa
Minister of Defence Minister in charge of Security Legislation	Gen Nakatani
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minister in charge of Alleviating the Burden of the Bases in Okinawa	Yoshihide Suga
Minister of State for Reconstruction Minister in charge of Comprehensive Policy Coordination for Revival from the Nuclear Accident at Fukushima	Tsuyoshi Takagi
Chairperson of the National Public Safety Commission Minister in charge of Administrative Reform Minister in charge of Civil Service Reform Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety Minister of State for Regulatory Reform Minister of State for Disaster Management	Taro Kono
Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy Minister of State for Space Policy Minister in charge of Ocean Policy and Territorial Issues Minister in charge of Information Technology Policy Minister in charge of "Cool Japan" Strategy	Aiko Shimajiri
Minister in charge of Economic Revitalisation Minister in charge of Total Reform of Social Security and Tax Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy	Nobuteru Ishihara
Minister in Charge of Promoting Dynamic Engagement of All Citizens Minister in charge of Women's Empowerment Minister in charge of "Challenge Again" Initiative Minister in charge of the Abduction Issue Minister in charge of Building National Resilience Minister of State for Measures for Declining Birthrate Minister of State for Gender Equality	Katsunobu Katō
Minister in charge of Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalising Local Economy in Japan Minister of State for National Strategic Special Zones	Shigeru Ishiba
Minister in charge of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games	Toshiaki Endo

References

The Japan Times. "Cabinet Profiles" [since 2008]. The Japan Times Online. Accessed 13 October 2012 from: 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

Notes

↑ "List of Ministers". Kantei.go.jp. 24 December 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2015.

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 Financial Services Agency Consumer Affairs 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)

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 Nagorno-Karabakh Northern Cyprus Palestine South Ossetia Taiwan

Dependencies and other territories	British Indian Ocean Territory Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Hong Kong Macau

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