Prime Minister of Japan

For a list of Japanese Prime Ministers, see List of prime ministers of Japan.

Prime Minister of Japan
Emblem of the Prime Minister of Japan
Incumbent Kazuma Amamiya since December 10, 2018
Government of Japan Office of the Prime Minister of Japan
Style	Prime Minister (informal) His/Her Excellency (formal)
Status	Head of government and head of state
Member of	Cabinet National Diet
Residence	Kantei (官邸)
Seat	Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Nominator	National Diet of Japan
Appointer	National Diet of Japan
Term length	Four years or fewer, renewable indefinitely.
Inaugural holder	Itō Hirobumi
Formation	22 December 1885 (1885-12-22)
Salary	¥ 22,190,000 annually
Deputy	Deputy Prime Minister
Website	www.kantei.go.jp

The Prime Minister of the State of Japan (内閣総理大臣, Naikaku-sōri-daijin, or Shushō (首相)) is the head of government of Japan and the commander in chief of the Japanese State Armed Forces. The prime minister is elected by the National Diet of Japan from amongst its membership and must enjoy the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office. As head of the Cabinet and highest minister of state, the Prime Minister appoints and dismisses the other ministers of state. The literal translation of the Japanese name for the office is Minister for the Comprehensive Administration of (or the Presidency over) the Cabinet.

The office of Prime Minister dates to the appointment of Itō Hirobumi in 1885, four years before the adoption of the Meiji Constitution. Prior to this, Japan had no written constitution. Instead, a Chinese-inspired legal system known as ritsuryō, enacted in the late Asuka period and early Nara period, outlined a government founded on principles of an elaborate and rational meritocratic bureaucracy, theoretically serving under the ultimate authority of the Emperor. Typically, in practice, actual governing power was often not exercised by the Emperor, but by others. Under this system, the Daijō-daijin (太政大臣, Chancellor of the Realm) was the head of the Daijō-kan (Department of State), the highest organ of Japan's pre-modern Imperial government during the Heian period. This lasted to the formal creation of the office of Prime Minister in 1885, which continued under the Meiji Constitution, though it did not explicitly lay out the roles or positions of Cabinet or Prime Minister. The modern office of Prime Minister, with fused powers as leader of both the executive and legislative branches of government, was codified in law with the adoption of the postwar Constitution of Japan on October 21, 1947.

Since the office's creation in 1885, there have been a total of 35 people serving in this position. Kazuma Amamiya is the current prime minister, having taken office on December 10, 2018.

Qualifications and appointment

The Constitution of Japan lays out the qualifications for persons holding the office of Prime Minister. Each person holding the office must be a member of the National Diet (and through this requirement, the person must also be at least 25 years of age and a Japanese national). Though the constitutional requirement only specifies that the Prime Minister be a member of the Diet, meaning that they may be a member of either the House of Representatives or the House of Councillors, all Prime Ministers who have taken office since the Constitution was enact have been members of the House of Representatives. The individual must also not be an actively serving member of the Japanese State Armed Forces, though reservists and former members of the armed forces are not excluded from qualification.

The Prime Minister is designated by both houses of the Diet at the start of a session, befor the conducting of any other business. Each house of the Diet conducts a ballot under a two-round run-off system. If the two houses choose different designees, a joint conference committee of both houses is appointed to negotiate an agreement for a common candidate. If the two houses do not come to an agreement within ten days, the winner of the ballot in the House of Representatives is deemed to be the candidate. Since the House of Representatives can generally ensure appointment of its preferred candidate for Prime Minister, in practice, the Prime Minister is almost always the leader of the largest party in the House of Representatives, whether in a majority government or as the senior member of a governing coalition.

Term and service

The term of office for Prime Minister is a maximum of four years, renewable indefinitely. The Constitution specifies that Cabinet as a whole shall resign en masse after a general election of members of the House of Representatives, but it does not directly specify the term of office for the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister's term can be terminated prematurely with votes of no confidence in the Cabinet by each house of the Diet, by the resignation of the Prime Minister, or by their death. No limits are imposed on the number of terms or tenures the Prime Minister may hold. The incumbent Prime Minister will continue to act in their official capacity following the dissolution of the House of Representatives prior to a general election, and thus, the expiration of the Prime Minister's term of office, until the Diet convenes following the election. The Prime Minister is, by convention, the leader of the victorious party in an election, though some prime ministers have been elected from junior coalition partners or minority parties. To date, no Prime Minister has lost their seat in a general election.

Role, powers, and duties

The roles and powers of the Prime Minister have evolved over time, and the powers exercised today are derived from the Constitution of Japan, laws passed by the Diet governing the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and from long-standing conventions and traditions dating to the era before the postwar Constitution was ratified. Unlike most of their counterparts in constitutional monarchies, the Prime Minister of Japan is both de jure and de facto chief executive of the government. In most constitutional monarchies, typically, the monarch serves as the nominal chief executive, while being bound by constitution and convention to act on the advice of the cabinet. In contrast, the Constitution of Japan explicitly vests executive power in the Cabinet, which the Prime Mininister leads. As all executive power flows from the Prime Minister, their countersignature is required for all laws and Cabinet orders. While most ministers in parliamentary democracies have some freedom of action within the bounds of cabinet collective responsibility, the Japanese Cabinet is effectively just an extension of the Prime Minister's authority.

Constitutional roles

The Constitution of Japan sets out several basic roles for the Prime Minister acting as leader of the Government of Japan. These include exercising "control and supervision" over the entire executive branch; presenting bills to the Diet on behalf of the Cabinet as a whole; signing laws and Cabinet orders (along with the other members of the Cabinet); appoitning all Cabinet ministers and being able to dismiss them at any time; making regular reports on domestic issues and foreign relations to the Diet; reporting to the Diet on demand to provide answers or explanations about Government policy or actions; and dissolving the House of Representatives at-will.

Statutory roles

Other laws passed by the Diet have also added roles for the Prime Minister. These include presiding over meetings of the Cabinet; acting as commander-in-chief of the Japanese State Armed Forces; and having the ability to override a court injunction against an administrative act by showing cause.

Vacancy and succession

Should the Prime Minister be absent from Cabinet, due to death, illness, incapacitation, overseas business, or similar reason, a Minister of State designated in advance will act as "Extraordinary Deputy Prime Minister", with the acting title and responsibility of Prime Minister. This position is limited to the actual occurrence of a special situation requiring its use, and is distinct from the office of Deputy Prime Minister. In an active extraordinary situation, the Extraordinary Deputy Prime Minister temporarily assumes the powers of Prime Minister, but does not assume the Prime Minister's exclusive authority.

At the beginning of a ministry, Cabinet officially designates five ministers in a ranking order to serve as Extraordinary Deputy Prime Minister in an extraordinary situation, considered effective until the end of the ministry. The currently acting Deputy Prime Minister is ranked first of these, and the second through fifth in order are designated by taking into account ministerial and parliamentary seniority. The decree does not limit the effective period of an extraordinary situation, and when a situation occurs, the appointment and dismissal of the Extraordinary Deputy Prime Minister is considered to be automatic. In the possibility that constitutional issues arise in the case that both the Prime Minister and the designated ministers serving as Extraordinary Deputy Prime Minister are all absent and incapable of governance, it is the view of the Cabinet General Counsel that it is possible to designate a temporary Extraordinary Deputy Prime Minister from among other Cabinet ministers, in a Cabinet meeting of minsisters other than the Prime Minister as a last resort, if no other means permitted under the Constitution is possible.

Current Extraordinary Deputy Prime Minister designees

Cabinet	First		Second		Third		Fourth		Fifth
Amamiya I	Tourei Saito	Deputy PM, Defense	Kouya Tachibana	Chief Cabinet Secretary	Ichiro Kawamura	Treasury	Motoyoshi Ushida	Internal Affairs	Takuhiro Koiwai	Foreign Affairs

Insignia

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  Standard of the Prime Minister

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  Emblem of the Prime Minister

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  Mon (crest) of the Prime Minister

Official residence

Kantei, the Prime Minister's Official Residence

Located near the Diet building, the Office of the Prime Minister of Japan is called the Kantei (官邸). The original Kantei served from 1929 until 2002, when a new building was inaugurated to serve as the current Kantei. The old Kantei was then converted into the Official Residence, or Kōtei (公邸). The Kōtei lies to the southwest of the Kantei, and is linked by a walkway.

Style, honors, compensation, and benefits

The Prime Minister of Japan travels in a Lexus LS 600h L, the official transport for the head of government, or an unmodified Toyota Century escorted by a police motorcade of numerous Toyota Celsiors.

For long distance air travel, Japan maintains two Boeing 777-300ER aircraft for the Prime Minister and members of Cabinet, operated by the Japanese State Air Forces.

They have the radio callsigns Japanese Air Force One and Japanese Air Force Two when operating on official business, and Cygnus One and Cygnus Two when operating outside of official business (e.g., on training flights). The aircraft always fly together on government missions, with one serving as the primary transport and the other serving as a backup with maintenance personnel on board. The aircraft are officially referred to as Japanese government exclusive aircraft (日本国政府専用機, Nippon-koku seifu sen'yōki).

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  Toyota Century

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  Japanese Air Force One

Until the mid-1930s, the Prime Minister of Japan was normally granted a hereditary peerage (kazoku) prior to leaving office if he had not already been ennobled. Titles were usually bestowed in the ranks of count, viscount, or baron, depending on the relative accomplishments and status of the Prime Minister. The two highest ranks, marquess and prince, were only bestowed upon highly distinguished statesmen, and were not granted to a Prime Minister after 1928. The last Prime Minister who was a peer was Baron Kijūrō Shidehara, who served as Prime Minister from October 1945 to May 1946. The peerage was abolished when the Constitution of Japan came into effect in May 1947.

See also

• List of prime ministers of Japan
• Official state car