Prime Minister of Japan
Official Emblem of the Prime Minister of Japan
Incumbent Yoshihiko Noda since September 2, 2011
Style	His Excellency
Residence	Kantei
Appointer	The Emperor
Term length	Four years or less. (The Cabinet shall resign en masse after a general election of members of the House of Representatives. Their term of office is four years and can be terminated earlier. No limits are imposed on total times or length of Prime Minister tenures of the same person.) The Prime Minister is, by convention, the leader of the victorious party.
Inaugural holder	Itō Hirobumi
Formation	22 December 1885
Website	www.kantei.go.jp

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The Prime Minister of Japan (内閣総理大臣, Naikaku-sōri-daijin^?) is the head of government of Japan. He is appointed by the Emperor of Japan after being designated by the Diet from among its members, and must enjoy the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office. He is the head of the Cabinet and appoints and dismisses the Ministers of State; the literal translation of the Japanese name for the office is Minister for the Comprehensive Administration of the Cabinet or Minister that Presides over the Cabinet.

The office was created in 1885, four years before the enactment of the Meiji Constitution. It took its current form with the adoption of the current constitution in 1947.

The current Prime Minister is Yoshihiko Noda, who took the post on 2 September 2011.

  Appointment

The Prime Minister is designated by both houses of the Diet, before the conduct of any other business. For that purpose, each conducts a ballot under the run-off system. If the two houses choose different individuals, then a joint committee of both houses is appointed to agree on a common candidate. Ultimately, however, if the two houses do not agree within ten days, the decision of the House of Representatives is deemed to be that of the Diet. Therefore, the House of Representatives can theoretically ensure the appointment of any Prime Minister it wishes.^[1] The candidate is then formally appointed to office by the Emperor.^[2]

The Prime Minister must resign if the House of Representatives adopts a motion of no confidence or defeats a vote of confidence, unless the House of Representatives is dissolved within ten days.^[3]

  Qualifications

• Must be a member of either house of the Diet. (This implies a minimum age of 25 and a Japanese nationality requirement.)
• Must be a "civilian". This excludes serving members of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, as well as any former member of the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy who is strongly connected to militarist thought. Note that former military officers from the World War II era may be appointed prime minister despite the "civilian" requirement, Yasuhiro Nakasone being one prominent example.

  Role

  Constitutional roles

• Exercises "control and supervision" over the entire executive branch.^[4]
• Presents bills to the Diet on behalf of the Cabinet.^[5]
• Signs laws and Cabinet orders (along with other members of the Cabinet).^[6]
• Appoints all Cabinet ministers, and can dismiss them at any time.^[7]
• May permit legal action to be taken against Cabinet ministers.^[8]
• Must make reports on domestic and foreign relations to the Diet.^[5]
• Must report to the Diet upon demand to provide answers or explanations.^[9]

  Statutory roles

• Presides over meetings of the Cabinet.^[10]
• Commander in chief of the Japan Self-Defense Forces.^[11]
• May override a court injunction against an administrative act upon showing of cause.^[12]

  Insignia

  History

After the Meiji Restoration, the Daijō-kan system, which was used in the Nara period, was adopted as the Japanese government entity. Political powers of their leader, Daijō Daijin and his aides, Sadaijin and Nadaijin were ambiguous and frequently conflicted with other positions such as Sangi. In the 1880s, Itō Hirobumi, then one of Sangi, started to examine the reformation of the governmental organization. In 1882, Ito and his staff, Itō Miyoji and Saionji Kinmochi, traveled to Europe and investigated constitutions in constitutional monarchies, the British Empire and the German Empire. After his return to Japan, Ito urged the need of a Constitution and a modern governmental system and persuaded conservatives to approve his plan.

On December 22, 1885, in the Daijō-kan order No. 69, abolition of Daijō-kan and the induction of the Prime Minister (内閣総理大臣) and his cabinet were published.

  Official office and residence

  Kantei, the official residence of the Prime Minister

The Office of the Prime Minister of Japan is called the Kantei (官邸). The original Kantei served from 1929 until 2002, until a new building was inaugurated which now serves as the new Kantei.^[13] The old Kantei was then converted to the new official residence, or Kōtei (公邸).^[14]

  List of Prime Ministers from 1982 - 2012

  Lists of Prime Ministers of Japan

• List of Prime Ministers of Japan
• List of Japanese Prime Ministers by longevity

  References

• Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, Kenkyusha Limited, Tokyo 1991, ISBN 4-7674-2015-6

  External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Prime ministers of Japan

• Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet Official website
• List of Japanese cabinets 1885 to 1989　(Japanese)

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Prime Ministers of Japan (List) H. Itō Kuroda Sanjō Yamagata Matsukata H. Itō Kuroda Matsukata H. Itō Ōkuma Yamagata H. Itō Saionji Katsura Saionji Katsura Saionji Katsura Yamamoto Ōkuma Terauchi Hara Uchida Takahashi To. Katō Uchida Yamamoto Kiyoura Ta. Katō Wakatsuki G. Tanaka Hamaguchi Shidehara Hamaguchi Wakatsuki Inukai Takahashi Saitō Okada Gotō Okada Hirota Hayashi Konoe Hiranuma N. Abe Yonai Konoe Tōjō Koiso K. Suzuki Higashikuni Shidehara Yoshida Katayama Ashida Yoshida I. Hatoyama Ishibashi Kishi Ikeda Satō K. Tanaka Miki T. Fukuda Ōhira M. Itō Z. Suzuki Nakasone Takeshita Uno Kaifu Miyazawa Hosokawa Hata Murayama Hashimoto Obuchi Aoki Mori Koizumi S. Abe Y. Fukuda Aso Y. Hatoyama Kan Noda Italics denote acting Prime Ministers