The Third Koizumi Cabinet governed Japan for the final year of

Junichiro Koizumi Junichiro Koizumi (; , ''Koizumi Jun'ichirō'' ; born 8 January 1942) is a former Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2001 to 2006. He retired from politics in 2009. He is ...

's term as Prime Minister, from September 2005 to September 2006, following the landslide victory of his coalition in the "postal election" of 2005.

Background

Following his re-election by the

National Diet The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (Japan), House of Councillors (, ...

on September 21, Koizumi did not make any ministerial changes when inaugurating his third cabinet, keeping his previous team in place to focus on the re-introduction and passage of the bills to privatize

Japan Post was a Japanese statutory corporation that existed from 2003 to 2007, offering postal and package delivery services, Retail banking, banking services, and life insurance. It's the nation's largest employer, with over 400,000 employees, and run ...

, which had formed the basis for his re-election campaign. Once this was accomplished, Koizumi conducted his final cabinet reshuffle on October 31 at the end of the Diet session. This reshuffle promoted several potential successors including

Sadakazu Tanigaki is a Japanese politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1983 to 2016, as Minister of Finance from 2003 to 2006, as President of the Liberal Democratic Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2009 to 2012, as Minist ...

, who was reappointed as Finance Minister,

Tarō Asō is a Japanese politician serving as the Vice President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 2021. Asō previously served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2008 to 2009 and as Deputy Prime Minister of Japan and Minister of Finance from 2 ...

, who was moved to become Foreign Minister, and

Shinzō Abe Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍晋三, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 20 ...

, who was promoted from LDP Secretary General to the post of Chief Cabinet Secretary. Koizumi also promoted

Heizō Takenaka is a Japanese economist, retired politician, and political activist last serving as Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications and Minister of State for Privatization of the Postal Services in the cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizum ...

his long-serving minister for economic reform, to the position of Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications to oversee the implementation of postal and administrative reform. Since 1980, the Liberal Democratic Party has limited its leader to two consecutive terms, meaning that Koizumi was bound to stand down as Prime Minister in September 2006 when his second term expired. This gave him just one year following his re-election to conclude the reforms he had advocated during his terms of office, though he admitted in September 2005 that some would not be achieved in that time, such as constitutional revision to allow the Self-Defence Forces full military status. During the final session of the Diet under Koizumi's premiership, 82 out of 91 government bills were passed, including administrative and healthcare reforms, though education, constitutional and criminal law reforms were not enacted. Despite calls from some members of the LDP and the

Komeito , formerly New Komeito and abbreviated NKP, is a conservative political party in Japan founded by lay members of the Buddhist Japanese new religious movement Soka Gakkai in 1964. Since 2012, it has served in government as the junior coalitio ...

to amend party rules and allow him to stay on (amendments which allow the President of LDP have another 3 years term, which later amended by

Shinzo Abe Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍晋三, Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), President of the Lib ...

in 2015), Koizumi adhered to the term limit and retired in September 26, 2006.

Election of the Prime Minister

Lists of Ministers

R = Member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

C = Member of the

House of Councillors The is the upper house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers. If the two houses disagree on matters of the budget, treaties, ...

Cabinet

Reshuffled Cabinet

References

External links

Pages at the

Kantei The Prime Minister's Official Residence is the official workplace and residence of the Prime Minister of Japan. It is commonly referred to as , , or simply . Located at 2-3-1 Nagata-chō, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100–8968, it is diagonally adjacen ...

(English website):
Koizumi Administration

{{DEFAULTSORT:Third Koizumi Cabinet Cabinet of Japan 2005 establishments in Japan 2006 disestablishments in Japan Cabinets established in 2005 Cabinets disestablished in 2006