Who is the current Prime Minister of Japan?
24833#3
To date, 62 people have served this position. The current Prime Minister is Shinzō Abe, who re-took office on December 26, 2012. He is the first former Prime Minister to return to office since 1948, and the 5th longest serving Prime Minister to date.
Prime Minister of Japan
12082857#2
The Japanese government made the upgrade from the Defense Agency to the Ministry of Defense with a ceremony that was attended by then Prime Minister Shinzō Abe and the then-new Minister of Defense Fumio Kyuma. The creation of the Ministry of Defense was in conjunction with Prime Minister Abe's continued efforts to ensure a stronger image of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF). The bill in which to upgrade the Defense Agency to the Ministry of Defense was approved by the House of Representatives (lower house) in November 2007, and the House of Councillors (upper house) in mid-December 2007. In light of the Defense Agency being transformed into the Ministry of Defense, the JSDF was given the responsibilities of international operations, disaster relief and peacekeeping within the overseas locations.The Commander-in-Chief of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF), who does not formally constitute a uniformed military, is the Prime Minister. The Emperor of Japan is a constitutional monarch who does not have political or military authority over the JSDF; that authority rests with the Prime Minister. However, it is important to note that the Emperor formally appoints the Prime Minister to office. The Minister of Defense is responsible for the organization and formulating the national security policy. The budget request is drafted by the Ministry of Finance and making its own legislative proposals to the National Diet.
Minister of Defense (Japan)
314092#8
(*) The table only includes PMs who have cumulatively served 2 years (730 days) or more. A fully detailed list is available at List of Japanese prime ministers by longevity.As of 2022, eleven former Prime Ministers of Japan are alive. The most recent death of a former Prime Minister of Japan is that of Tsutomu Hata (1994) on August 28, 2017. Shinzō Abe, who served as Prime Minister from 2006 to 2007, is currently serving (since 2012) and thus is not included on this list.
List of Prime Ministers of Japan
24833#15
As of 2022, eleven former Prime Ministers of Japan are alive. The most recent death of a former Prime Minister of Japan is that of Tsutomu Hata (1994) on August 28, 2017. Shinzō Abe, who served as Prime Minister from 2006 to 2007, is currently serving and thus is not included on this list.
Prime Minister of Japan
38027685#2
The current Deputy Prime Minister is Tarō Asō, who took the post on 26 December 2012.
Deputy Prime Minister of Japan
314092#0
This is a list of Prime Ministers of Japan, including those of the Empire of Japan, from when the first Japanese prime minister (in the modern sense), Itō Hirobumi, took office in 1885, until the present day. The office is currently held by Shinzō Abe. Those Prime Ministers under the Meiji Constitution had a mandate from the Emperor. The "electoral mandates" shown are for the lower house of the Imperial Diet that was not constitutionally guaranteed to have any influence on the appointment of the Prime Minister.
List of Prime Ministers of Japan
24833#12
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.
Prime Minister of Japan
573784#3
In practice, much of the Cabinet's authority is exercised by the Prime Minister. Under the Constitution, the Prime Minister exercises "control and supervision" over the executive branch, and no law or Cabinet order can take effect without the Prime Minister's countersignature (and the Emperor's promulgation). While Cabinet Ministers in most other parliamentary democracies theoretically have some freedom of action (within the limits of cabinet collective responsibility), the Japanese Cabinet is effectively an extension of the Prime Minister's authority.
The members of the current cabinet of Japan headed by the Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Shinzō Abe as of 2 October 2018 are as follows:
Cabinet of Japan
296498#29
Yasuhiro Nakasone and Ryutaro Hashimoto visited Yasukuni Shrine in, respectively, 1986 and 1996, and paid respects as Prime Minister of Japan, drawing intense opposition from Korea and China. Junichirō Koizumi visited the shrine and paid respects six times during his term as Prime Minister of Japan, with the first visit on August 13, 2001, stating that he was "paying homage to the servicemen who died [in the] defense of Japan". These visits again drew strong condemnation and protests from Japan's neighbors, mainly China and South Korea. As a result, the heads of the two countries refused to meet with Koizumi, and there were no mutual visits between Chinese and Japanese leaders after October 2001 and between South Korean and Japanese leaders after June 2005. The President of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, had suspended all summit talks between South Korea and Japan until 2008 when he resigned from office. The current prime minister, Shinzō Abe, has made several visits to the shrine, the most recent being in December 2013.
Japan–Korea disputes
174187#18
At the age of , Nakasone is currently the oldest living former Japanese prime minister as well as the oldest living former state leader in the world, following the death of Babiker Awadalla on 17 January 2019. Nakasone is the second oldest Prime Minister of Japan by age after Naruhiko Higashikuni who lived to .
Yasuhiro Nakasone