The of Japan was the nine-person

national security council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a n ...

which advises the

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

on national security and the

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distin ...

and deals with a wide spectrum of issues which indirectly affect Japan's broader interests, including basic national defense policy, the National Defense Program Outline, the outline on coordinating industrial production and other matters related to the National Defense Program Outline, including decisions on

diplomatic Diplomatics (in American English, and in most anglophone countries), or diplomatic (in British English), is a scholarly discipline centred on the critical analysis of documents: especially, historical documents. It focuses on the conventions, p ...

initiatives and defense operations.

History

It was created on July 1, 1986 to replace its predecessor, the National Defense Council, during Yasuhiro Nakasone's term as prime minister. The NDC acted as an advisory group on defense-related matters since 1956 and was plagued with shortcomings on managing daily defense issues and doing crisis management.http://www.adamphailliff.com/documents/Liff2018_JapaneseStudies_JapansNationalSecurityCouncil.pdf Like the NDC, the SC had problems with its mandate, structure, secretariat and functions, but it was considered an improvement for its ability to coordinate with parts of the Japanese governments by conducting half a dozen meetings frequently. It was superseded by the

Japanese National Security Council The of Japan is the principal body used by the Prime Minister of Japan and top senior advisors to coordinate national security and military policies of Japan. It was formed in 2013 as an initiative for Shinzo Abe to replace the obsolete Securit ...

set up 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 January 2014.

Membership

The Security Council was presided over by the Prime Minister and includes the Ministers of State who were specified in advance under Article 9 of the Cabinet Law; the Foreign Minister, the

Finance Minister A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...

, the Chief Cabinet Secretary, the

Minister for Defense {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in stat ...

, the Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, and the Director General of the Economic Planning Agency. The Chairman of the Security Council may invite the Chairman of the Joint Staff Council or another relevant State Minister or Official to attend meetings.

References

Cabinet of Japan Japan 1986 establishments in Japan Defunct government agencies of Japan 2014 disestablishments in Japan {{Japan-gov-stub