Matsumoto is a great great grandson of Itō Hirobumi, the first Prime Minister of Japan. Matsumoto's father, Juro Matsumoto, was a senior member of the Liberal Democratic Party and was the Minister of Defense from August 1989 to February 1990. Matsumoto was selected as Foreign Minister of Japan in 2011 by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, after the resignation of his predecessor, Seiji Maehara, only two days before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and subsequent Fukushima I nuclear disaster.