The is a high-ranking position within the Japanese conservative party, the Liberal Democratic Party. According to the LDP constitution, the secretary-general assists the party president in their duties.
As the LDP vice president is a largely ceremonial position, the secretary-general is de facto the second-most-powerful person in the party. The secretary-general is authorized to raise political donations and controls the party finances, resources for elections and managing and advising the party leader on the distribution of appointments. The secretary-general also mobilizes resources for elections and holds the final authority over the list of LDP-backed candidates for the National Diet elections. The secretary-general oversees the LDP Diet Affairs Committee, responsible for steering party-supported bills through both chambers of the Diet, and appoints its chairman. The secretary-general also oversees key LDP organizations such as the personnel, treasury, information research and international bureaus.
The secretary-general is appointed by the president after the formal approval of the LDP General Council. The secretary-general is assisted by up to 30 deputy secretaries-general, appointed by the secretary-general with the approval of the General Council, one of whom is appointed as the acting secretary-general. The current secretary-general is Shun'ichi Suzuki, appointed on 7 October 2025.
List of officeholders
No.PresidentPortraitConstituency or titleTook officeLeft officePresident1Nobusuke Kishi Rep for Yamaguchi 1stNovember 1955December 1956Ichirō Hatoyama2Takeo MikiRep for Tokushima At-largeDecember 1956July 1957Tanzan IshibashiNobusuke Kishi3Shojiro KawashimaRep for Chiba 1stJuly 1957January 19594Takeo FukudaRep for Gunma 3rdJanuary 1959June 19595Shojiro KawashimaRep for Chiba 1stJune 1959July 19605Shūji MasutaniRep for Ishikawa 2ndJuly 1960July 1961Hayato Ikeda6Shigesaburō MaeoRep for Kyoto 2ndJuly 1961July 19647Takeo MikiRep for Tokushima At-largeJuly 1964June 1965Eisaku Satō8Kakuei TanakaRep for Niigata 3rdJune 1965December 19669Takeo FukudaRep for Gunma 3rdDecember 1966November 196810Kakuei TanakaRep for Niigata 3rdNovember 1968June 197111Shigeru HoriRep for Saga At-largeJune 1971July 197212Tomisaburo HashimotoRep for Ibaraki 1stJuly 1972November 1974Kakuei Tanaka13Susumu NikaidōRep for Kagoshima 3rdNovember 1974December 197414Yasuhiro NakasoneRep for Gunma 3rdDecember 1974September 1976Takeo Miki15Tsuneo UchidaRep for Yamanashi At-largeSeptember 1976December 197616Masayoshi ŌhiraRep for Kagawa 2ndDecember 1976December 1978Takeo Fukuda17Kunikichi SaitoRep for Fukushima 3rdDecember 1978November 1979Masayoshi Ōhira18Yoshio SakurauchiRep for Shimane At-LargeNovember 1979November 1981Zenkō Suzuki19Susumu NikaidōRep for Kagoshima 3rdNovember 1981December 1983Yasuhiro Nakasone20Rokusuke TanakaRep for Fukuoka 4thDecember 1983October 198421Shin KanemaruRep for Yamanashi At-largeOctober 1984July 198622Noboru TakeshitaRep for Shimane At-largeJuly 1986October 198723Shintaro AbeRep for Yamaguchi 1stOctober 1987June 1989Noboru Takeshita24Ryutaro HashimotoRep for Okayama 4thJune 1989August 1989Sōsuke Uno25Ichirō Ozawa Rep for Iwate 2ndAugust 1989April 1991Toshiki Kaifu26Keizō ObuchiRep for Gunma 5thApril 1991October 199127Tamisuke WatanukiRep for Toyama 2ndOctober 1991December 1992Kiichi Miyazawa28Seiroku KajiyamaRep for Ibaraki 2ndDecember 1992July 199329Yoshirō MoriRep for Ishikawa 2ndJuly 1993August 1995Yōhei Kōno30Hiroshi MitsuzukaRep for Miyagi 3rdAugust 1995October 199531Koichi KatoRep for Yamagata 3rdOctober 1995July 1998Ryutaro Hashimoto32Yoshirō MoriRep for Ishikawa 2ndJuly 1998April 2000Keizō Obuchi33Hiromu NonakaRep for Kyoto 4thApril 2000December 2000Yoshirō Mori34Makoto KogaRep for Fukuoka 7thDecember 2000April 200135Taku YamasakiRep for Fukuoka 2ndApril 2001September 2003Junichiro Koizumi36Shinzo AbeRep for Yamaguchi 4th22 September 200324 September 200437Tsutomu TakebeRep for Hokkaido 12thSeptember 2004September 200638Hidenao NakagawaRep for Hiroshima 4thSeptember 2006August 2007Shinzo Abe39Tarō AsōRep for Fukuoka 8thAugust 2007September 200740Bunmei IbukiRep for Kyoto 1stSeptember 2007August 2008Yasuo Fukuda41Tarō AsōRep for Fukuoka 8thAugust 2008September 200842Hiroyuki HosodaRep for Shimane 1st22 September 200829 September 2009Tarō Asō43Tadamori ŌshimaRep for Aomori 3rdSeptember 2009September 2010Sadakazu Tanigaki44Nobuteru IshiharaRep for Tokyo 8thSeptember 2010September 201245Shigeru IshibaRep for Tottori 1st26 September 20123 September 2014Shinzo Abe46Sadakazu TanigakiRep for Kyoto 5th3 September 20143 August 201647Toshihiro NikaiRep for Wakayama 3rd4 August 20161 October 2021Yoshihide Suga48Akira AmariRep for Kanagawa 13th1 October 20214 November 2021Fumio Kishida49Toshimitsu MotegiRep for Tochigi 5th4 November 202130 September 202450Hiroshi MoriyamaRep for Kagoshima 4th30 September 20247 October 2025Shigeru Ishiba51Shun'ichi SuzukiRep for Iwate 2nd7 October 2025IncumbentSanae Takaichi
References