| Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications | |
|---|---|
| 総務大臣 | |
 Emblem of the Government of Japan | |
 | |
| Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications | |
| Style | His Excellency |
| Member of | Cabinet of Japan National Security Council |
| Reports to | Prime Minister of Japan |
| Nominator | Prime Minister of Japan |
| Appointer | Emperor of Japan attested to by theEmperor |
| Precursor | Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Minister for Home Affairs Director-General of the Internal Affairs and Communications Bureau |
| Formation | January 6, 2001; 24 years ago (2001-01-06) |
| Deputy | State Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications |
| Salary | ¥20,916,000 |
TheMinister for Internal Affairs and Communications (総務大臣,Soumu Daijin) is a member of theCabinet of Japan and is the leader and chief executive of theMinistry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The minister is also a statutory member of theNational Security Council, and is nominated by thePrime Minister of Japan and is appointed by theEmperor of Japan.
The current minister isYoshimasa Hayashi, who took office on October 21, 2025.
Liberal Democratic
Democratic
Independent
| Internal Affairs Minister | Term of office | Prime Minister | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Portrait | Name | Took office | Left office | Days | |||
| 1 |  | Toranosuke Katayama | January 6, 2001 | September 22, 2003 | 989 | Yoshirō Mori | ||
| Junichiro Koizumi | ||||||||
| 2 |  | Taro Aso | September 22, 2003 | October 31, 2005 | 770 | |||
| 3 |  | Heizō Takenaka | October 31, 2005 | September 26, 2006 | 330 | |||
| 4 |  | Yoshihide Suga | September 26, 2006 | August 27, 2007 | 335 | Shinzō Abe | ||
| 5 |  | Hiroya Masuda | August 27, 2007 | September 24, 2008 | 394 | |||
| Yasuo Fukuda | ||||||||
| 6 |  | Kunio Hatoyama | September 24, 2008 | June 12, 2009 | 261 | Taro Aso | ||
| 7 |  | Tsutomu Sato | June 12, 2009 | September 16, 2009 | 96 | |||
| 8 |  | Kazuhiro Haraguchi | September 16, 2009 | September 17, 2010 | 366 | Yukio Hatoyama | ||
| Naoto Kan | ||||||||
| 9 |  | Yoshihiro Katayama | September 17, 2010 | September 2, 2011 | 350 | |||
| 10 |  | Tatsuo Kawabata | September 2, 2011 | October 1, 2012 | 395 | Yoshihiko Noda | ||
| 11 |  | Shinji Tarutoko | October 1, 2012 | December 26, 2012 | 86 | |||
| 12 |  | Yoshitaka Shindō | December 26, 2012 | September 3, 2014 | 616 | Shinzō Abe | ||
| 13 |  | Sanae Takaichi | September 3, 2014 | August 3, 2017 | 1065 | |||
| 14 |  | Seiko Noda | August 3, 2017 | October 2, 2018 | 425 | |||
| 15 |  | Masatoshi Ishida | October 2, 2018 | September 11, 2019 | 344 | |||
| 16 (14) | .jpg) | Sanae Takaichi | September 11, 2019 | September 16, 2020 | 371 | |||
| 17 |  | Ryota Takeda | September 16, 2020 | October 4, 2021 | 383 | Yoshihide Suga | ||
| 18 |  | Yasushi Kaneko | October 4, 2021 | August 10, 2022 | 310 | Fumio Kishida | ||
| 19 |  | Minoru Terada | August 10, 2022 | November 20, 2022 | 102 | |||
| 20 |  | Takeaki Matsumoto | November 21, 2022 | September 13, 2023 | 296 | |||
| 21 |  | Junji Suzuki | September 13, 2023 | December 14, 2023 | 92 | |||
| 22 (20) | | Takeaki Matsumoto | December 14, 2023 | October 1, 2024 | 292 | |||
| 23 |  | Seiichiro Murakami | October 1, 2024 | October 21, 2025 | 385 | Shigeru Ishiba | ||
| 24 | | Yoshimasa Hayashi | October 21, 2025 | Incumbent | 2 | Sanae Takaichi | ||
| Reference:soumu.go.jp | ||||||||