Councils under Cabinet Secretariat: Abolish Task Forces Whose Necessity Has Declined

Editorial

15:42 JST, March 9, 2026

It is undeniable that past administrations, fixated on policy decisions led by the Prime Minister’s Office, set up councils on policy priorities one after another — particularly under the Cabinet Secretariat — resulting in organizational bloat.

To make administrative operations efficient, it is only natural to consolidate or abolish councils whose necessity has diminished or whose policy objectives overlap.

The government has decided to abolish, in stages, 69 councils set up under the Cabinet Secretariat and the Cabinet Office, saying they have largely fulfilled their functions. It reportedly also plans to consider consolidating or abolishing other councils over the next two years.

Most of the councils to be abolished are currently dormant. However, staffers in charge of these councils remain in place.

Many staff members hold concurrent positions in other departments. Nevertheless, as long as they are assigned to certain councils, they have to regularly monitor developments on issues related to those panels. They are reportedly also required to prepare reports at times. This places a heavy burden on the staff.

One council that has already been abolished in this review was a government-labor-management council aimed at realizing a positive economic cycle that was launched in 2013 by the Cabinet of then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Its goal was to encourage companies to raise wages, but the council had not held a meeting since 2015.

Subsequently, the Cabinet of then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida set up a platform where people from the government exchanged views with the labor and management sides. The Takaichi Cabinet has also used this platform.

A task force on avian influenza that was set up by an administration led by the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan has finally been abolished in this review. Measures against avian influenza are now being handled by a different council. It is evident that councils from both the DPJ-led administration era and the Abe Cabinet era were neglected, continuing to exist only due to inertia.

Following the reorganization of ministries and agencies in 2001, a system was established in which the prime minister leads policy decisions. The Cabinet Secretariat and the Cabinet Office support the prime minister by coordinating policy measures across ministries and agencies.

It seems likely that past prime ministers launched councils to project an image of themselves using this system to take the lead in policy making.

Under the Cabinet Secretariat, there were 88 ministerial or other relevant councils chaired by the prime minister or the chief cabinet secretary as of November last year. This is more than double the 39 such panels in 2015. Even after a change of administration, these councils were likely not abolished because successive cabinets felt reluctant to disband those set up by their predecessors.

As the number of councils has increased, the number of Cabinet Secretariat staff members surpassed 3,700 last fiscal year, including those concurrently serving in other ministries and agencies, compared to 1,400 staffers 20 years ago.

If councils are launched indiscriminately to suit the convenience of the administration of the time, bureaucrats will be pulled in too many directions and unable to focus on formulating important policy measures. It is crucial to streamline the organizations and eliminate unnecessary operations.

 (From The Yomiuri Shimbun, March 9, 2026)