Minister of Defense (Japan)

The , or , is a  member of the Japanese cabinet and is the leader of the Japanese Ministry of Defense.

The minister of defense is appointed by the Prime Minister and is a member of the National Security Council.

## List of ministers of defense (2007–present)

|colspan=4|Minister of Defense|colspan=3|Term of office|style="width:160px;" rowspan=2 colspan=2|Prime Minister|||||||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1||||||||||||||
||Fumio Kyuma|January 9, 2007|July 4, 2007|||||||||||
|rowspan=3|Shinzō Abe|||||||||||||
|2||||||||||||||
||Yuriko Koike|July 4, 2007|August 27, 2007|||||||||||
|3||||||||||||||
||Masahiko Kōmura|August 27, 2007|September 26, 2007|||||||||||
|4||||||||||||||
||Shigeru Ishiba|September 26, 2007|August 2, 2008|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|Yasuo Fukuda|||||||||||||
|5||||||||||||||
||Yoshimasa Hayashi|August 2, 2008|September 24, 2008|||||||||||
|6||||||||||||||
||Yasukazu Hamada|September 24, 2008|September 16, 2009|||||||||||
|Taro Aso||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2|7|rowspan=2 style="background-color: "||rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Toshimi Kitazawa|rowspan=2|September 16, 2009|rowspan=2|September 2, 2011|rowspan=2||
|Yukio Hatoyama||||||||||||||
|Naoto Kan||||||||||||||
|8||||||||||||||
||Yasuo Ichikawa|September 2, 2011|January 13, 2012|||||||||||
|rowspan=3|Yoshihiko Noda|||||||||||||
|9||||||||||||||
||Naoki Tanaka|January 13, 2012|June 4, 2012|||||||||||
|10||||||||||||||
||Satoshi Morimoto|June 4, 2012|December 26, 2012|||||||||||
|11||||||||||||||
||Itsunori Onodera|December 26, 2012|September 3, 2014|||||||||||
|rowspan=8|Shinzō Abe|||||||||||||
|12||||||||||||||
||Akinori Eto|September 3, 2014|December 24, 2014|||||||||||
|13||||||||||||||
||Gen Nakatani|December 24, 2014|August 3, 2016|||||||||||
|14||||||||||||||
||Tomomi Inada|August 3, 2016|July 28, 2017|||||||||||
|–||||||||||||||
||_Fumio Kishida_ _ (Acting)_|_July 28, 2017_|_August 3, 2017_|__||||||||||
|15 (11)||||||||||||||
||Itsunori Onodera|August 3, 2017|October 2, 2018|||||||||||
|16||||||||||||||
||Takeshi Iwaya|October 2, 2018|September 11, 2019|||||||||||
|17||||||||||||||
||Tarō Kōno|September 11, 2019|September 16, 2020|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|18|||||||||||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Nobuo Kishi|rowspan=2|September 16, 2020|rowspan=2|August 10, 2022|rowspan=2||||||
|Yoshihide Suga||||||||||||||
|rowspan="3"|Fumio Kishida|||||||||||||
|19 (6)||||||||||||||
||Yasukazu Hamada|August 10, 2022|September 13, 2023|||||||||||
|20||||||||||||||
||Minoru Kihara|September 13, 2023|October 1, 2024|||||||||||
|21 (13)||||||||||||||
||Gen Nakatani|October 1, 2024|October 21, 2025|||||||||||
|Shigeru Ishiba||||||||||||||
|22||||||||||||||
||Shinjirō Koizumi|October 21, 2025|Incumbent|||||||||||
|Sanae Takaichi||||||||||||||

## Infobox (official post)

- **post**: Minister
- **body**: Defense
- **flag**: Standard of the Minister of Defence of Japan.svg
- **flagcaption**: Standard of the Minister of Defense
- **image**: Shinjirō Koizumi Ministry of Defence portrait.jpg
- **incumbent**: Shinjirō Koizumi
- **department**: Ministry of Defense (Japan), Ministry of Defense
- **style**: His Excellency
- **member of**: Cabinet of Japan, Cabinet
National Security Council (Japan), National Security Council
Defense Council
- **reports to**: The Prime Minister of Japan, Prime Minister
- **appointer**: The Prime Minister of Japan, Prime Minister
- **precursor**: #Director general of the Defense Agency, Director General of the Defense Agency
- **first**: Fumio Kyuma
- **deputy**: State Minister of Defense
- **salary**: ¥20,916,000