The politics of Japan are conducted in a framework of a dominant-party bicameral parliamentary representative democratic constitutional monarchy. A hereditary monarch,currently Emperor Naruhito,serves as head of state while the Prime Minister of Japan,currently Shigeru Ishiba since 2024,serves as the elected head of government.
The prime minister of Japan is the head of government of Japan. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet of Japan and has the ability to select and dismiss its ministers of state. The prime minister also serves as the commander-in-chief of the Japan Self Defence Forces and is a sitting member of either house of the National Diet.
The Constitution of Japan is the supreme law of Japan. Written primarily by American civilian officials during the occupation of Japan after World War II,it was adopted on 3 November 1946 and came into effect on 3 May 1947,succeeding the Meiji Constitution of 1889. The constitution consists of a preamble and 103 articles grouped into 11 chapters. It is based on the principles of popular sovereignty,with the Emperor of Japan as the symbol of the state;pacifism and the renunciation of war;and individual rights.
The National Diet is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house,called the House of Representatives,and an upper house,the House of Councillors. Both houses are directly elected under a parallel voting system. In addition to passing laws,the Diet is formally responsible for nominating the Prime Minister. The Diet was first established as the Imperial Diet in 1890 under the Meiji Constitution,and took its current form in 1947 upon the adoption of the post-war constitution. Both houses meet in the National Diet Building in Nagatachō,Chiyoda,Tokyo.
Yamaguchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 and has a geographic area of 6,112 km2. Yamaguchi Prefecture borders Shimane Prefecture to the north and Hiroshima Prefecture to the northeast.
The House of Representatives is the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Councillors is the upper house. The composition of the House is established by Article 41 and Article 42 of the Constitution of Japan. The House of Representatives has 465 members,elected for a four-year term. Of these,176 members are elected from 11 multi-member constituencies by a party-list system of proportional representation,and 289 are elected from single-member constituencies.
Spark Masayuki Matsunaga was an American politician and attorney who served as United States Senator for Hawaii from 1977 until his death in 1990. Matsunaga also represented Hawaii in the U.S. House of Representatives and served in the Hawaii territorial house of representatives. A member of the Democratic Party,Matsunaga introduced legislation that led to the creation of the United States Institute of Peace and to reparations to Japanese-American World War II detainees.
Yōhei Kōno is a Japanese politician and a former President of the Liberal Democratic Party. He served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from November 2003 until August 2009,when the LDP lost its majority in the 2009 election. Kōno served as speaker for the longest length since the set up of House of Representatives in 1890.
Hiroyuki Hosoda was a Japanese politician who served as the speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan from November 2021 to October 2023. He was a member of the House of Representatives from 1990,and served as Chief Cabinet Secretary in Junichiro Koizumi's cabinet from 2004 to 2005,and as Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party from 2008 to 2009.
Herman Peter Eberharter was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
Hosei Norota was a Japanese politician of the People's New Party,a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. A native of Noshiro,Akita and graduate of Chuo University he joined the Ministry of Construction in 1953. Leaving the ministry,he was elected to the House of Councillors in the Diet for the first time in 1977. In 1983 he was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time. From 1995 to 1996 he served as the Minister of Agriculture,Forestry and Fisheries in Tomiichi Murayama's cabinet. In 1998 he served briefly as Director General of the Japan Defense Agency.
Takahiro Yokomichi was a Japanese politician who belonged to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and was a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. A native of Sapporo,Hokkaidō,and graduate of the University of Tokyo,he was elected to the first of his five terms in the House of Representatives in 1969 as a member of the Japan Socialist Party in the electoral district of his late father Setsuo. He left the House of Representatives and was elected to be the governor of Hokkaidō. He served for three terms from 1983 to 1995. After finishing his term as governor,he left the Socialist Party,joining the DPJ. In 1996 he was re-elected to the House of Representatives. He is the leader of the most left-leaning faction in the DPJ. After the victory of 2009 elections,then-DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama named him as the next house speaker.
Hirotaka Akamatsu is a Japanese politician from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan,a former minister and Vice Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan.
Tadamori Ōshima is a former Japanese politician who served as the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan from 2015 to 2021. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party,he previously served as the Minister of Agriculture,Forestry and Fisheries,and the Minister of Education,Culture,Sports,Science and Technology. He is affiliated to the revisionist lobby Nippon Kaigi.
KōichirōGenba is a Japanese politician who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2011 to 2012. He is a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet,and was a member to the Democratic Party of Japan and its successor Democratic Party until its merger in 2018. He left the party briefly before the merger,and joined the Group of Independents House of Representatives caucus of other former Democrats a few days later. A native of Tamura,Fukushima and graduate of Sophia University,he was later accepted into the prestigious Matsushita Institute of Government and Management,an institution founded by Panasonic founder Konosuke Matsushita which grooms future civic leaders of Japan. Genba was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1993 after serving in the assembly of Fukushima Prefecture for one term. In September 2011 he was chosen as Minister for Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.
JoséBayani "Pepito" Hidalgo Laurel Jr.,also known as Jose B. Laurel Jr.,was a Filipino politician who was elected twice as speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines. A stalwart of the Nacionalista Party,he was the party's candidate for the country's vice president in the 1957 elections.
Scott K. Saiki is an American attorney and politician. He has served as a Democratic member of the Hawaii House of Representatives,representing the state's 26th district. He served as majority leader from 2013 to 2017 and as speaker of the Hawaii House of Representatives from 2017 to 2024.
The Government of Japan is the central government of Japan. It consists of legislative,executive and judiciary branches and functions under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan,adopted in 1947 and written by American officials in the Allied occupation of Japan after World War II. Japan is a unitary state,containing forty-seven administrative divisions,with the Emperor as its head of state. His role is ceremonial and he has no powers related to the Government. Instead,it is the Cabinet,comprising the Prime Minister and the Ministers of State,that directs and controls the government and the civil service. The Cabinet has the executive power and is formed by the prime minister,who is the head of government. The Prime Minister is nominated by the National Diet and appointed to office by the Emperor. The current cabinet is Second Ishiba Cabinet,was formed on 11 November 2024,is led by the prime minister Shigeru Ishiba who assumed office on 1 October 2024. The country has had a Liberal Democratic–Komeito coalition minority government since 2024.
John Robert Moolenaar is an American chemist and politician serving as a U.S. representative from Michigan since 2015,representing the state's 2nd congressional district since 2023. A member of the Republican Party,he served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 2003 to 2008 and the Michigan Senate from 2011 to 2014.
