Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary

The Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary (内閣官房副長官, Naikaku-kanbō-fuku-chōkan) is an official in the Japanese government who assists the Chief Cabinet Secretary. Since July 1998 there have always been three Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries at any given time.

Role

The Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries are customarily divided into two types: those responsible for political affairs (政務担当) and those responsible for administrative affairs (事務担当). Since the Obuchi Cabinet, there have been two Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries for political affairs and one for administrative affairs. Prior to that, there were one for each.^[1]

The Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries for political affairs are members of the National Diet, one from the House of Representatives and one from the House of Councillors. The position is often given to a protégé or close aide to the Prime Minister. It is considered a gateway to success for mid-career Diet members, as those who serve in it have often been given important cabinet positions afterwards. There are five instances of former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries becoming Prime Minister: Noboru Takeshita, Toshiki Kaifu, Yoshirō Mori, Shinzo Abe and Yukio Hatoyama.^[1]^[2]^[3]

The Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary for administrative affairs is the senior bureaucrat in the government. The position is typically filled by someone who has previously served as administrative vice-minister or in a equivalent role. The main function of this position is to coordinate the bureaucracy. They preside over the administrative vice-minister's liaison conference, a sub-cabinet meeting of the senior bureaucrats of each ministry.^[1]^[2]^[3]

List of officeholders

Since the Obuchi Cabinet

Date of appointment	Political affairs (House of Representatives)	Political affairs (House of Councillors)	Administrative affairs	Prime Minister
31 July 1998	Muneo Suzuki	Mitsuhiro Uesugi	Teijirō Furukawa	Obuchi
5 October 1999	Fukushiro Nukaga	Sōichirō Matsutani		Obuchi
5 April 2000	Fukushiro Nukaga	Sōichirō Matsutani		Mori
4 July 2000	Shinzo Abe	Kōsei Ueno		Mori
26 April 2001	Shinzo Abe	Kōsei Ueno		Koizumi
22 September 2003	Hiroyuki Hosoda	Masaaki Yamazaki	Masahiro Futahashi
7 May 2004	Seiken Sugiura	Masaaki Yamazaki
31 October 2005	Jinen Nagase	Seiji Suzuki
26 September 2006	Hakubun Shimomura	Seiji Suzuki	Junzō Matoba	Abe
27 August 2007	Matsushige Ono	Mitsuhide Iwaki	Junzō Matoba	Abe
26 September 2007	Matsushige Ono		Masahiro Futahashi	Fukuda
1 August 2008	Ryu Shionoya		Masahiro Futahashi	Fukuda
24 September 2008	Jun Matsumoto	Yoshitada Konoike	Iwao Uruma	Aso
13 May 2009	Jun Matsumoto	Katsuhito Asano	Iwao Uruma	Aso
16 September 2009	Yorihisa Matsuno	Koji Matsui	Kin'ya Takino	Hatoyama
8 June 2010	Motohisa Furukawa	Tetsuro Fukuyama		Kan
14 January 2011	Hirohisa Fujii
17 March 2011	Yoshito Sengoku
2 September 2011	Tsuyoshi Saitō	Hiroyuki Nagahama	Makoto Taketoshi	Noda
1 October 2012	Tsuyoshi Saitō	Hirokazu Shiba	Makoto Taketoshi	Noda
26 December 2012	Katsunobu Kato	Hiroshige Seko	Kazuhiro Sugita	Abe
7 October 2015	Koichi Hagiuda	Hiroshige Seko
13 August 2016	Koichi Hagiuda	Kotaro Nogami
3 August 2017	Yasutoshi Nishimura	Kotaro Nogami
11 September 2019	Akihiro Nishimura	Naoki Okada
16 September 2020	Manabu Sakai	Naoki Okada		Suga
4 October 2021	Seiji Kihara	Yoshihiko Isozaki	Shun'ichi Kuryu	Kishida
13 September 2023	Hideki Murai	Hiroshi Moriya	Shun'ichi Kuryu	Kishida

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "政権の黒子？出世の登竜門？　官房副長官の役割とは". Jiji.com (in Japanese). Jiji Press. 8 December 2023. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
^ ^a ^b Hayao, Kenji (1993). The Japanese Prime Minister and Public Policy. University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 165–167. ISBN 978-0-8229-7157-3.
^ ^a ^b Shinoda, Tomohito (2011). Koizumi Diplomacy: Japan's Kantei Approach to Foreign and Defense Affairs. University of Washington Press. pp. 66–70. ISBN 978-0-2958-0373-9.

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[Jiji-1] "政権の黒子？出世の登竜門？　官房副長官の役割とは". Jiji.com (in Japanese). Jiji Press. 8 December 2023. Retrieved 15 June 2024.

[Hayao-2] Hayao, Kenji (1993). The Japanese Prime Minister and Public Policy. University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 165–167. ISBN 978-0-8229-7157-3.

[Shinoda-3] Shinoda, Tomohito (2011). Koizumi Diplomacy: Japan's Kantei Approach to Foreign and Defense Affairs. University of Washington Press. pp. 66–70. ISBN 978-0-2958-0373-9.

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