Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Tuesday he will take over the post of vaccination minister from Noriko Horiuchi, who is set to leave the job at the end of March.

Horiuchi's departure coincides with the end of a period designated by law for creation of the ministerial post in charge of work related to last summer's Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, a title under which she has doubled up in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

The total number of Cabinet ministers will decrease to 19 from the current 20 on Friday. When Kishida launched his Cabinet last October after becoming prime minister, he gave Horiuchi, who belongs to the faction he leads within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, her first ministerial post.