Prime Minister of Japan

Prime Minister of Japan 内閣総理大臣
Official Emblem of the Japanese Prime Minister
Incumbent Shinzō Abe since December 26, 2012
Style	His Excellency
Residence	Kantei
Appointer	HIM The Emperor
Term length	Since 1947: Four years or less. (The Cabinet shall resign en masse after a general election of members of the House of Representatives. Their term of office is four years which can be terminated earlier. No limits are imposed on the number of terms or tenures the Prime Minister may hold.) The Prime Minister is, by convention, the leader of the victorious party, though some prime ministers have been elected from junior coalition partners or minority parties.
Inaugural holder	Itō Hirobumi
Formation	December 22, 1885
Website	www.kantei.go.jp

The Prime Minister of Japan (内閣総理大臣, Naikaku-sōri-daijin^?) is the head of government of Japan. The Prime Minister is appointed by the Emperor of Japan after being designated by the National Diet and must enjoy the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office. He or she is the head of the Cabinet and appoints and dismisses the other Ministers of State. The literal translation of the Japanese name for the office is Minister for the Comprehensive Administration of (or the Presidency over) the Cabinet.

Prior to the adoption of the Meiji Constitution, Japan had in practice no written constitution. Originally, a Chinese-inspired legal system known as ritsuryō was enacted in the late Asuka period and early Nara period. It described a government based on an elaborate and rational bureaucracy, serving, in theory, under the ultimate authority of the Emperor; although in practice, real power was often held elsewhere, such as in the hands of the Fujiwara clan, who intermarried with the Imperial Family in the Heian period, or by the ruling Shogun. Theoretically, the last ritsuryō code, the Yōrō Code enacted in 752, was still in force at the time of the Meiji Restoration.