PRIME MINISTER
Fumio Kishida
Date of birth: July 29, 1957
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Lower House; Hiroshima No. 1 (ninth term)
Japan's new prime minister helped realize the 2016 visit by U.S. President Barack Obama to atomic-bombed Hiroshima and struck the 2015 agreement with South Korea to resolve the issue of comfort women — who suffered under Japan’s military brothel system before and during World War II — while foreign minister, a tenure that lasted over four and half years.
Having been defeated last year in the previous Liberal Democratic Party presidential race by former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, 64-year-old Kishida reached out to people in rural areas and pledged to tackle economic disparities.
The third-generation lawmaker heads a major faction in the ruling party that produced four prime ministers before him.
INTERNAL AFFAIRS AND COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER
Yasushi Kaneko
Date of birth: Feb. 27, 1961
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Lower House; Kumamoto No. 4 (seventh term)
Kaneko is a former senior vice minister for the transport ministry who prioritizes revitalizing regional economies.
The 60-year-old belongs to the liberal-leaning faction of the LDP led by the new prime minister and served as acting chairperson of the Policy Research Council when it was headed by Kishida.
The minister, who hails from Kumamoto Prefecture, was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2000.
JUSTICE MINISTER
Yoshihisa Furukawa
Date of birth: Aug. 3, 1965
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Lower House; Miyazaki No. 3 (sixth term)
Furukawa, who has taken his first Cabinet post, is known for being well-versed in finance and law.
The 56-year-old former senior vice minister of finance and big fan of veteran Japanese rock singer Eikichi Yazawa backed former vaccination minister Taro Kono, who was defeated by Kishida in the LDP leadership race. He is among the founding members of a faction led by former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who also backed Kono in the Sept. 29 election.
A former bureaucrat at the predecessor of the land ministry, Furukawa was elected to the House of Representatives on his third attempt in 2003 from a district in Miyazaki Prefecture.
FOREIGN MINISTER
Toshimitsu Motegi
Date of birth: Oct. 7, 1955
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Lower House; Tochigi No. 5 (ninth term)
Motegi, retained as foreign minister, is known as a policy expert well-versed in economic and foreign policy, and he led Japan's efforts to provide COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan and Southeast Asian nations.
The 65-year-old House of Representatives lawmaker led talks to strike a bilateral trade deal with the United States and conclude the revised Trans-Pacific Partnership, an 11-member regional free trade agreement.
Motegi had a diverse career before winning a Lower House seat for the first time in 1993, with stints at trading house Marubeni Corp., at the Yomiuri Shimbun as a political news reporter and at McKinsey & Co. as a consultant.
FINANCE MINISTER
Shunichi Suzuki
Date of birth: April 13, 1953
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Lower House; Iwate No. 2 (ninth term)
Suzuki is a member of the LDP's second-largest faction, which is led by his predecessor Taro Aso, who is also his brother-in-law.
The 68-year-old, the son of former Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki, has served as environment minister and twice as minister in charge of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, before chairing the LDP's decision-making General Council for a year until September 2020.
After working as a secretary for his father, Suzuki won his first House of Representatives seat in 1990 and is now in his ninth term in the Lower House. His district in Iwate Prefecture was among those hit by the massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan.
His hobbies are playing golf and cooking.
EDUCATION MINISTER
Shinsuke Suematsu
Date of birth: Dec. 17, 1955
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Upper House; Hyogo (third term)
Suematsu, the new education minister, has been actively promoting accessibility within the House of Councilors to support Diet members with disabilities.
The 65-year-old previously worked as senior vice minister of transport and parliamentary vice minister of finance. As chairman of the Upper House committee on rules and administration, he had worked for a barrier-free environment to help lawmakers with disabilities belonging to the opposition party Reiwa Shinsengumi.
Prior to entering politics, the native of Hyogo Prefecture worked at All Nippon Airways Co. after studying law at Kwansei Gakuin University. He was first elected to the Upper House in 2004.
HEALTH, LABOR AND WELFARE MINISTER
Shigeyuki Goto
Date of birth: Dec. 9, 1955
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Lower House; Nagano No. 4 (sixth term)
Goto, who has secured his first Cabinet post, is a former bureaucrat who is credited for his management skills.
Previously serving as acting chairman of the LDP's Policy Research Council, Goto, a 65-year-old six-term member of the House of Representatives, joined the ruling party in 2003.
Before winning his first seat in 2000 for the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan, the University of Tokyo graduate served at the Finance Ministry. While at the ministry, he studied economics at Brown University in the United States.
AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES MINISTER
Genjiro Kaneko
Date of birth: May 8, 1944
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Upper House; Nagasaki (second term)
Kaneko is a veteran lawmaker dedicated to fostering local industries in rural areas.
The 77-year-old, two-term member of the House of Councilors has 46 years of experience in politics, with past stints as a governor and a prefectural assembly member in his home prefecture of Nagasaki. He also served five terms in the House of Representatives.
Kaneko, who belongs to the faction led by Kishida, has served as chairman of the Upper House Budget Committee.
ECONOMY, TRADE AND INDUSTRY MINISTER
Koichi Hagiuda
Date of birth: Aug. 31, 1963
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Lower House; Tokyo No. 24 (fifth term)
Hagiuda is known as a close aide of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The 58-year-old served as education minister under former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, leading the government's efforts to promote digitalization at schools so as to facilitate distance learning after Japan was hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
A member of the LDP's largest faction, Hagiuda has also served in posts such as deputy chief Cabinet secretary and executive acting secretary-general of the LDP.
LAND, INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT AND TOURISM MINISTER
Tetsuo Saito
Date of birth: Feb. 5, 1952
Party: Komeito
Electoral district: Lower House; proportional representation (ninth term)
Saito is deputy leader of Komeito, the junior coalition partner of the LDP, and has served as environment minister and as his party's secretary-general and policy chief.
A former engineer with a doctoral degree, the 69-year-old researched space development at major construction firm Shimizu Corp. before first being elected to the House of Representatives in 1993.
Saito is expected to face a tough challenge in the general election slated for Oct. 31, when he will run as a unified candidate of the LDP-Komeito coalition in a Hiroshima district previously held by Katsuyuki Kawai, a former justice minister and LDP member who quit following a high-profile vote-buying scandal.
ENVIRONMENT MINISTER
Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi
Date of birth: Oct. 3, 1954
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Lower House; Hyogo No. 12 (sixth term)
Yamaguchi left the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan and joined the ruling LDP in 2015.
The 67-year-old former diplomat made his way into politics after becoming acquainted with veteran opposition lawmaker Ichiro Ozawa, serving in such posts as senior vice minister of the Cabinet Office in the DPJ when it was in power between 2009 and 2012.
Yamaguchi, a native of Hyogo Prefecture, left the DPJ after it was voted out and joined an LDP faction led by former Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai.
DEFENSE MINISTER
Nobuo Kishi
Date of birth: April 1, 1959
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Lower House; Yamaguchi No. 2 (third term)
Kishi, retained as defense minister, is former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's younger brother and grandson of another former prime minister, Nobusuke Kishi.
Kishi, 62, is versed in international and economic affairs, partly due to his 21-year career at trading company Sumitomo Corp. before entering politics. Under former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Kishi strove to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific in the face of an increasingly assertive China.
The House of Representatives lawmaker was first elected to the House of Councilors in 2004. In 2012, he successfully ran for the more powerful Lower House and is currently serving his third term representing Yamaguchi Prefecture.
CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY
Hirokazu Matsuno
Date of birth: Sept. 13, 1962
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Lower House; Chiba No. 3 (seventh term)
Mild-mannered Matsuno has spent much of his life working on education issues, as well as promoting the status of women and equal opportunities in society.
The 59-year-old former education minister belongs to the largest faction in the LDP. He is known for his close ties with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The Chiba Prefecture native was elected, on his second attempt, to the House of Representatives in 2000. He previously worked at the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management, which is known as an incubator for young people aspiring to pursue a political career.
DIGITAL MINISTER
Karen Makishima
Date of birth: Nov. 1, 1976
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Lower House; Kanagawa No. 17 (third term)
The 44-year-old was the first female director of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's Youth Division. She had called for upholding an internal party rule that says candidates under the proportional representation system in the Lower House election must not be older than 73.
The native of Kanagawa Prefecture obtained a master's degree from the graduate school of political management at George Washington University. She ran for the Lower House in 2009 in the home district of former House of Representatives speaker Yohei Kono, who retired that year and chose her as his successor. She succeeded on her second attempt.
Makishima is known as a hunting and game meat enthusiast with a trapping license.
RECONSTRUCTION MINISTER
Kosaburo Nishime
Date of birth: Aug. 7, 1954
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Lower House; Okinawa No. 4 (fifth term)
Nishime, also appointed the new minister in charge of Okinawa and Northern Territories affairs, has made it his mission to work on industrial and infrastructure development in the southern island prefecture, including its remote islands.
Nishime, a 67-year-old who hails from Okinawa, has served as secretary to his father Junji Nishime, who was then Okinawa governor, and in posts such as senior vice economy minister.
First elected to the Lower House in 2003, Nishime was one of the 20 lawmakers who gave Kishida the prerequisite endorsement for his run in the LDP leadership election. He is a fan of retired Japanese pop diva Namie Amuro, also from Okinawa.
NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION CHAIRMAN
Satoshi Ninoyu
Date of birth: Sept. 13, 1944
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Upper House; Kyoto (third term)
Ninoyu, who has been given his first Cabinet post, is a former senior vice internal affairs minister who has worked to promote regional revitalization by making use of his experience as a long-time member of the Kyoto Municipal Assembly.
The 77-year-old indicated in June that he will not run for another term in the Upper House election next summer and retire from politics.
A native of Kyoto, Ninoyu served as a member of the city assembly from 1987 before being elected to the Upper House in 2004. He was one of the 20 lawmakers who gave Kishida the endorsement he needed to run in the LDP's leadership election.
MINISTER OF STATE FOR MEASURES FOR DECLINING BIRTHRATE
Seiko Noda
Date of birth: Sept. 3, 1960
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Lower House; Gifu No. 1 (ninth term)
Noda, whose brief also covers gender equality issues, has made no secret about her desire to become the first female prime minister of Japan, although she failed in her attempt to beat Kishida in the most recent LDP leadership race.
Known as a strong-willed lawmaker, Noda, 61, was among the LDP lawmakers who pushed for insurance coverage of fertility treatment. She gave birth to a boy at the age 50 through in vitro fertilization using a donated egg in the United States.
A granddaughter of a former construction minister, Noda has served as minister of internal affairs and communications as well as executive acting secretary-general of the LDP, among other roles.
ECONOMIC REVITALIZATION MINISTER
Daishiro Yamagiwa
Date of birth: Sept. 12, 1968
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Lower House; Kanagawa No. 18 (fifth term)
Yamagiwa worked as a veterinarian before being elected a House of Representatives member in 2003 with the LDP.
The 53-year-old now leads the government's coronavirus response along with the new health minister Shigeyuki Goto and new vaccination minister Noriko Horiuchi.
A close aide to new LDP Secretary-General Akira Amari, Yamagiwa has served as deputy minister of economy, trade and industry and acting chairman of the LDP Policy Research Council.
MINISTER IN CHARGE OF ECONOMIC SECURITY
Takayuki Kobayashi
Date of birth: Nov. 29, 1974
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Lower House; Chiba No. 2 (third term)
Kobayashi, whose post is newly created, served as a former parliamentary vice minister of defense and helped Akira Amari, the new secretary-general of the LDP, draw up economic security policies, including those to protect advanced technology.
Before winning his first seat as a House of Representatives member in 2012, the 46-year-old worked at the Finance Ministry and served as a secretary at the Japanese Embassy in the United States. He attended the University of Tokyo and earned a master's degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
The Chiba Prefecture native, who is one of three third-term Lower House members to have joined the Cabinet, belongs to an LDP faction led by Toshihiro Nikai, the party's longest-serving secretary general.
MINISTER IN CHARGE OF PROMOTING VACCINATIONS
Noriko Horiuchi
Date of birth: Oct. 28, 1965
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Lower House; Yamanashi No. 2 (third term)
Horiuchi, who has joined the Cabinet for the first time and will also oversee Olympic-related issues, is a three-term Lower House member who has served as a senior vice minister of environment.
Horiuchi, 55, is the daughter-in-law of the late Mitsuo Horiuchi, a former international trade and industry minister who previously led the LDP faction currently headed by Kishida.
First elected as a House of Representatives member in 2012 in Yamanashi Prefecture, she was an avid tennis player in her junior high and high school days. Her husband, Koichiro Horiuchi, is the president of rail operator Fuji Kyuko Co.
WORLD EXPO MINISTER
Kenji Wakamiya
Date of birth: Sept. 2, 1961
Party: LDP
Electoral district: Lower House; Tokyo No. 5 (fourth term)
Wakamiya, appointed as minister in charge of the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka, is known to be well-versed in security policies.
Having previously been in the posts of senior vice defense and vice foreign minister, Wakamiya is one of key members of the LDP's study group calling on Japan to develop and export a successor to the Air Self-Defense Force F-2 fighter jet.
The 60-year-old Tokyo native worked as a secretary for the late Seiji Tsutsumi, who led the now-defunct consumer services and finance conglomerate Saison Group, before he was first elected as a House of Representatives member in 2005.