Chief Cabinet Secretary

The Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan (内閣官房長官, Naikaku-kanbō-chōkan) is a member of the cabinet and is the leader and chief executive officer of the Cabinet Secretariat of Japan.^[1] They are also a member of the National Security Council, and is appointed by the Emperor upon the nomination by the Prime Minister.^[2]

Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan 内閣官房長官 Naikaku-kanbō-chōkan
Emblem of the Government of Japan
Incumbent Yoshimasa Hayashi since 14 December 2023
Cabinet Secretariat
Style	Mr. Secretary
Member of	Cabinet National Security Council
Reports to	The prime minister
Appointer	The prime minister attested to by the emperor
Term length	No fixed term
Precursor	Secretary-General of the Cabinet
Inaugural holder	Jōji Hayashi
Formation	3 May 1947; 77 years ago (1947-05-03)
Succession	Second
Deputy	Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary
Salary	¥20,916,000
Website	http://www.cas.go.jp/

The Chief Cabinet Secretary is the second in line of succession to the Prime Minister, unless the office of Deputy Prime Minister is being used.^[3]

Since 1947, the office of Chief Cabinet Secretary has been seen as the job to have before wanting to become Prime Minister. The first Chief Cabinet Secretary to become Prime Minister was Ichirō Hatoyama. Since then, eight other former Chief Cabinet Secretaries have become Prime Ministers, most recently Shinzō Abe, Yasuo Fukuda, and Yoshihide Suga.

Yoshihide Suga, who later became Prime Minister of Japan, was Chief Cabinet Secretary under Shinzo Abe for almost eight years, making him the longest-serving Chief Cabinet Secretary in history.^[4]

List of chief cabinet secretaries

Shōwa era

  Liberal (1945)
  Socialist
  Democratic (1947)
  Democratic Liberal
  Liberal (1950)
  Democratic (1954)
  Liberal Democratic

Chief Cabinet Secretary			Term of office			Prime Minister
Portrait		Name	Took office	Left office	Days
		Jōji Hayashi	May 3, 1947	May 24, 1947	21		Shigeru Yoshida
		Suehiro Nishio	June 1, 1947	March 10, 1948	283		Tetsu Katayama
		Gizō Tomabechi	March 10, 1948	October 15, 1948	219		Hitoshi Ashida
		Eisaku Satō[n 1]	October 17, 1948	February 16, 1949	122		Shigeru Yoshida
		Kaneshichi Masuda	February 16, 1949	May 6, 1950	444
		Katsuo Okazaki	May 6, 1950	December 26, 1951	599
		Shigeru Hori	December 26, 1951	October 30, 1952	309
		Taketora Ogata	October 30, 1952	May 21, 1953	203
		Kenji Fukunaga	May 21, 1953	December 10, 1954	568
		Ryutarō Nemoto	December 10, 1954	November 22, 1955	744		Ichirō Hatoyama
			November 22, 1955	December 23, 1956
		Hirohide Ishida	December 12, 1956	July 10, 1957	210		Tanzan Ishibashi
							Nobusuke Kishi
		Kiichi Aichi	July 10, 1957	June 12, 1958	337
		Munenori Akagi	June 12, 1958	June 18, 1959	371
		Etsusaburō Shiina	June 18, 1959	July 19, 1960	397
		Masayoshi Ōhira[n 2]	July 19, 1960	July 18, 1962	729		Hayato Ikeda
		Yasumi Kurogane	July 18, 1962	July 18, 1964	731
		Zenkō Suzuki[n 3]	July 18, 1964	November 9, 1964	114
		Tomisaburō Hashimoto	November 9, 1964	August 1, 1966	630		Eisaku Satō
		Kiichi Aichi	August 1, 1966	December 3, 1966	124
		Kenji Fukunaga	December 3, 1966	June 22, 1967	201
		Toshio Kimura	June 22, 1967	November 30, 1968	527
		Shigeru Hori	November 30, 1968	July 5, 1971	947
		Noboru Takeshita[n 4]	July 5, 1971	July 7, 1972	368
		Susumu Nikaidō	July 7, 1972	November 11, 1974	857		Kakuei Tanaka
		Noboru Takeshita[n 4]	November 11, 1974	December 9, 1974	28
		Ichitarō Ide	December 9, 1974	December 24, 1976	746		Takeo Miki
		Sunao Sonoda	December 24, 1976	November 28, 1977	339		Takeo Fukuda
		Shintaro Abe	November 28, 1977	December 7, 1978	374
		Rokusuke Tanaka	December 7, 1978	November 9, 1979	337		Masayoshi Ōhira
		Masayoshi Ito[n 5]	November 9, 1979	July 17, 1980	251
							Himself (Acting)
		Kiichi Miyazawa[n 6]	July 17, 1980	November 27, 1982	863		Zenkō Suzuki
		Masaharu Gotōda	November 27, 1982	December 27, 1983	395		Yasuhiro Nakasone
		Takao Fujinami	December 27, 1983	December 28, 1985	732
		Masaharu Gotōda	December 28, 1985	November 6, 1987	678
		Keizō Obuchi[n 7]	November 6, 1987	January 7, 1989	428		Noboru Takeshita

Heisei era

  Liberal Democratic
  Japan New Party
  New Party Sakigake
  Japan Renewal Party
  Socialist
  Democratic

Chief Cabinet Secretary			Term of office			Prime Minister
Portrait		Name	Took office	Left office	Days
		Keizō Obuchi[n 7]	January 8, 1989	June 3, 1989	147		Noboru Takeshita
		Masajuro Shiokawa	June 3, 1989	August 10, 1989	68		Sōsuke Uno
		Tokuo Yamashita	August 10, 1989	August 26, 1989	16		Toshiki Kaifu
		Mayumi Moriyama	August 26, 1989	February 28, 1990	186
		Misoji Sakamoto [ja]	February 28, 1990	November 5, 1991	615
		Koichi Kato	November 5, 1991	December 12, 1992	403		Kiichi Miyazawa
		Yōhei Kōno	December 12, 1992	August 9, 1993	240
		Masayoshi Takemura	August 9, 1993	April 28, 1994	262		Morihiro Hosokawa
		Hiroshi Kumagai [ja]	April 28, 1994	June 30, 1994	63		Tsutomu Hata
		Kozo Igarashi	June 30, 1994	August 8, 1995	404		Tomiichi Murayama
		Koken Nosaka	August 8, 1995	January 11, 1996	156
		Seiroku Kajiyama	January 11, 1996	September 11, 1997	609		Ryutaro Hashimoto
		Kanezo Muraoka [ja]	September 11, 1997	July 30, 1998	322
		Hiromu Nonaka	July 30, 1998	October 10, 1999	432		Keizo Obuchi
		Mikio Aoki	October 10, 1999	July 4, 2000	273
							Yoshiro Mori
		Hidenao Nakagawa	July 4, 2000	October 27, 2000	115
		Yasuo Fukuda[n 8]	October 27, 2000	May 7, 2004	1380
							Junichiro Koizumi
		Hiroyuki Hosoda	May 7, 2004	October 31, 2005	450
		Shinzo Abe[n 9]	October 31, 2005	September 26, 2006	330
		Yasuhisa Shiozaki	September 26, 2006	August 27, 2007	335		Shinzo Abe
		Kaoru Yosano	August 27, 2007	September 26, 2007	30
		Nobutaka Machimura	September 26, 2007	September 24, 2008	364		Yasuo Fukuda
		Takeo Kawamura	September 24, 2008	September 16, 2009	357		Taro Aso
		Hirofumi Hirano	September 16, 2009	June 8, 2010	265		Yukio Hatoyama
		Yoshito Sengoku	June 8, 2010	January 4, 2011	210		Naoto Kan
		Yukio Edano	January 4, 2011	September 2, 2011	241
		Osamu Fujimura	September 2, 2011	December 26, 2012	481		Yoshihiko Noda
		Yoshihide Suga[n 10]	December 26, 2012	April 30, 2019	2316		Shinzo Abe

Reiwa era

  Liberal Democratic

Chief Cabinet Secretary			Term of office			Prime Minister
Portrait		Name	Took office	Left office	Days
		Yoshihide Suga[n 10]	May 1, 2019	September 16, 2020	504		Shinzo Abe
		Katsunobu Katō	September 16, 2020	October 4, 2021	383		Yoshihide Suga
		Hirokazu Matsuno	October 4, 2021	December 14, 2023	801		Fumio Kishida
		Yoshimasa Hayashi	December 14, 2023	October 1, 2024	292
			October 1, 2024	Incumbent	27		Shigeru Ishiba

Notes

1. Later served as Prime Minister 1964-72
2. Later served as Prime Minister 1978-80
3. Later served as Prime Minister 1980-82
4. Later served as Prime Minister 1987-89
5. Served as Acting Prime Minister on the death of Ōhira, 12 June - 17 July 1980
6. Later served as Prime Minister 1991-93
7. Later served as Prime Minister 1998-2000
8. Later served as Prime Minister 2007-08.
9. Later served as Prime Minister 2006-07, 2012-20
10. Later served as Prime Minister 2020-21

References

1. Cabinet Act, Article 13.
2. Cabinet Act, Article 15
3. Cabinet Act, Article 9
4. "Government strongman Suga set to become Japan's longest-serving chief Cabinet secretary". Japan Times. Jiji Press. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2016.