The 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.
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.[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.
| Date of appointment | Political affairs (House of Representatives) | Political affairs (House of Councillors) | Administrative affairs | Prime Minister |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 July 1998 | Obuchi | |||
| 5 October 1999 | Sōichirō Matsutani | |||
| 5 April 2000 | Mori | |||
| 4 July 2000 | Kōsei Ueno | |||
| 26 April 2001 | Koizumi | |||
| 22 September 2003 | Masahiro Futahashi | |||
| 7 May 2004 | Seiken Sugiura | |||
| 31 October 2005 | Seiji Suzuki | |||
| 26 September 2006 | Abe | |||
| 27 August 2007 | Mitsuhide Iwaki | |||
| 26 September 2007 | Fukuda | |||
| 1 August 2008 | Ryu Shionoya | |||
| 24 September 2008 | Aso | |||
| 13 May 2009 | Katsuhito Asano | |||
| 16 September 2009 | Hatoyama | |||
| 8 June 2010 | Kan | |||
| 14 January 2011 | Hirohisa Fujii | |||
| 17 March 2011 | Yoshito Sengoku | |||
| 2 September 2011 | Noda | |||
| 1 October 2012 | Hirokazu Shiba | |||
| 26 December 2012 | Abe | |||
| 7 October 2015 | Koichi Hagiuda | |||
| 13 August 2016 | Kotaro Nogami | |||
| 3 August 2017 | Yasutoshi Nishimura | |||
| 11 September 2019 | Naoki Okada | |||
| 16 September 2020 | Suga | |||
| 4 October 2021 | Kishida | |||
| 13 September 2023 | Hiroshi Moriya | |||