Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary

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.

[1][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.

They preside over the administrative vice-minister's liaison conference, a sub-cabinet meeting of the senior bureaucrats of each ministry.