Chief Cabinet Secretary

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Japan, the Chief Cabinet Secretary (内閣官房長官, naikaku kanbō chōkan^?) is the Minister of State charged with directing the Cabinet Secretariat. The Chief Cabinet Secretary serves as the government's press secretary, conducts policy research, and prepares materials to be discussed at cabinet meetings. The Chief Cabinet Secretary's office is located on the fifth floor of the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo.

Before and during World War II, the position was known in Japanese as 内閣書記官長 (naikaku shokikanchō, 内閣書記官長^?). The modern position was created on May 3, 1947, shortly after the passage of the Constitution of Japan, and elevated to ministerial status in 1966. Yasuo Fukuda, who served under Yoshiro Mori and Junichiro Koizumi, is the longest-serving Chief Cabinet Secretary in history, having spent over 1,289 days in office.

Since 1947, the office of Chief Cabinet Secretary has been regarded as a stepping stone to the post of prime minister. The first Chief Cabinet Secretary to become prime minister was Ichiro Hatoyama, formerly Chief Cabinet Secretary to Gichi Tanaka. Since then, eight other Chief Cabinet Secretaries have become prime ministers, most recently Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda.

[edit] List of Chief Cabinet Secretaries

[edit] Shōwa Era

• Ichirō Hatoyama (1927 - 1929; later prime minister, 1954 - 1956)
• Shigeru Yoshida (1936; An official of Ministry of Interior, not to be confused with another Shigeru Yoshida, who was a prime minister and diplomat.)
• Hisatsune Sakomizu (7 April 1945 - 15 August 1945)
• Eisaku Sato (1946; later prime minister, 1964 - 1972)
• Masayoshi Ōhira (1960; later prime minister, 1978 - 1980)
• Zenko Suzuki (1963 - 1964; later prime minister, 1980 - 1982)
• Noboru Takeshita (1972 - 1974; later prime minister, 1987 - 1989)
• Kiichi Miyazawa (1980 - 1982; later prime minister, 1991 - 1993)

[edit] Heisei Era

• Keizo Obuchi (1987 - 1989; later prime minister, 1998 - 2000)
• Masajuro Shiokawa (1989)
• Tokuo Yamashita (1989)
• Mayumi Moriyama (1989 - 1990)
• Misoji Sakamoto (1990 - 1991)
• Koichi Kato (1991 - 1992)
• Yōhei Kōno (1992 - 1993)
• Masayoshi Takemura (1993 - 1994)
• Hiroshi Kumagai (1994)
• Kozo Igarashi (1994 - 1995)
• Koken Nozaka (1995 - 1996)
• Seiroku Kajiyama (1996 - 1997)
• Kanezo Muraoka (1997] - 1998)
• Hiromu Nonaka (1998 - 1999)
• Mikio Aoki (1999 - 2000)
• Hidenao Nakagawa (2000)
• Yasuo Fukuda (2000 - 2004; later prime minister, 2007 -)
• Hiroyuki Hosoda (2004 - 2005)
• Shinzo Abe (2005 - 2006; later prime minister, 2006 - 2007)
• Yasuhisa Shiozaki (2006 - 2007)
• Kaoru Yosano (2007)
• Nobutaka Machimura (2007 -)