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Japan The Cabinet and Ministries
In the postwar political system, executive power has
been
vested in the cabinet. The cabinet head is the prime
minister,
responsible for appointing and dismissing other cabinet
members.
Cabinet ministers include those appointed to head the
twelve
ministries, and the ministers of state placed in charge of
the
agencies and commissions of the Office of the Prime
Minister, which
itself has the status of a ministry. They include the
director
general of the Defense Agency, equivalent to a minister of
defense
but lacking ministerial status (a reflection of the
Article 9
renunciation of war). Also among the ministers of state
are the
chief cabinet secretary, who coordinates the activities of
the
ministries and agencies, conducts policy research, and
prepares
materials to be discussed at cabinet meetings, and the
director of
the Cabinet Legislative Bureau, who advises cabinet
members on
drafting the legislation to be proposed to the Diet.
Although the
chief cabinet secretary does not have ministerial rank,
the
position is influential within the cabinet because of its
coordination role.
The Board of Audit reviews government expenditures and
submits
an annual report to the Diet. The 1947 Board of Audit Law
gives
this body substantial independence from both cabinet and
Diet
control. The Security Council advises the prime minister
on
salaries and other matters pertaining to national
government civil
servants. Semiautonomous public corporations--including
public
housing corporations, financial institutions, and the
Japan
Broadcasting Corporation (Nippon Hoso Kyokai--NHK, the
sole,
noncommercial public radio and television broadcasting
system)--had
been reduced in number by the privatization of Japan
Airlines, the
Japanese National Railways, the Japan Tobacco and Salt
Public
Corporation, and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
Corporation during
the 1980s. In May 1992, there were ninety-two
semiautonomous
corporations and seven privatized corporations.
National government civil servants are divided into
"special"
and "regular" categories. Appointments in the special
category are
governed by political or other factors and do not involve
competitive examinations. This category includes cabinet
ministers,
heads of independent agencies, members of the Self-Defense
Forces,
Diet officials, and ambassadors. The core of the civil
service is
composed of members of the regular category, who are
recruited
through competitive examinations. This group is further
divided
into junior service and upper professional levels, the
latter
forming a well-defined civil service elite
(see The Civil Service
, this ch.).
Data as of January 1994
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