Naikaku Sōri Daijin Kantei
The or Prime Minister's Office is the official workplace of the prime minister of Japan. It is commonly referred to as, or simply. literally translates to "Prime Minister's Office" in English.
Located at 2-3-1 Nagata-chō, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100–8968, it is diagonally adjacent to the National Diet Building. The term is used as a metonym for the office of the prime minister of Japan and for the prime minister's advisors and administration in general.
In addition to being the principal office of the prime minister, the building also serves as the principal office of the chief cabinet secretary and their deputy, the location of Cabinet meetings, and is also the location of a national crisis management center.
Usage
The 1st floor contains a press conference room where the prime minister and the chief cabinet secretary hold press conferences. On the 4th floor there is a room where the Cabinet holds meetings, summits, etc. The 5th floor has the Prime Minister's Office, his or her Reception Room, the chief cabinet secretary's office and reception room.History
Current Office
A new five-storied office building was built in 2002, with 2.5 times the floor space. Installed with solar panels and a rainwater storage system, the new building has been designed to minimize environmental impact. The new residence went into service in April 2002In an April 2015 incident, a Phantom 2 drone carrying traces of radiation was found on the roof of the PM's office.
In October 2024, a vehicle used by Atsunobu Usuda crashed into a police barricade near the PMO.
Previous Office
The former office building is now known as the, the prime minister's personal residential quarters.With the evolution of a national parliament after the Meiji Restoration and the establishment of the post of "prime minister of Japan" in 1885, the need for an official prime ministerial residence was felt. On the encouragement of Prime Minister Tanaka Giichi, the first residence was completed on 18 March 1929. It incorporates architectural styles such as Art Deco and expressionist architecture which became popular from the late Taishō period to the early Shōwa period. It was heavily influenced by the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, in particular his design for the second Tokyo Imperial Hotel. It is a two-storied mansion designed by Muraji Shimomoto, of the Ministry of the Treasury. Prime Minister Tanaka is said to have exclaimed, "This is just like a café, isn't it?", upon seeing the building.
The building was the site of the May 15 incident in 1932 in which prime minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was assassinated. During the February 26 incident in 1936, renegade soldiers attacked the residence in an attempt to assassinate prime minister Keisuke Okada, who managed to hide in a closet. Instead, six people, including his brother-in-law, were killed. One bullet hole was retained from the 1936 event. The incidents gave rise to rumors that the residence is haunted, with the wife of prime minister Tsutomu Hata writing in a 1996 memoir that she saw spirits wearing old military uniforms in the residence's garden.
By the 1990s, the old building was deemed cramped and insufficient. It underwent seismic retrofitting and internal renovation. The building was unoccupied from 2012 to 2021, during the premierships of Shinzo Abe and Yoshihide Suga.