Editing Prime Minister of Japan (section)

==Appointment==
The prime minister is nominated by both houses of the [[National Diet|Diet]], before the conduct of any other business. For that purpose, each conducts a ballot under the [[Two-round system|run-off]] system. If the two houses choose different individuals, then a joint committee of both houses is appointed to agree on a common nominee. Ultimately, however, if the two houses do not agree, the decision of the House of Representatives is deemed to be that of the Diet. If the House of Councillors does not make a nomination within 10 days of the House of Representatives' nomination, the House of Representatives' nomination becomes the Diet's decision. Therefore, the House of Representatives can theoretically ensure the appointment of any prime minister it wants.<ref>{{cite constitution |article=67 |polity=Japan |date=1947}}</ref> The nominee is then presented with his or her commission, and formally [[Imperial Investiture|appointed]] to office by the [[Emperor of Japan|emperor]] at the [[Tokyo Imperial Palace]].<ref>{{cite constitution |article=6 |polity=Japan |date=1947}}</ref>

Conventionally, the prime minister is almost always the leader of the majority party in the House of Representatives, or the leader of the senior partner in the governing coalition. But there have been three cabinet prime ministers from junior coalition partners ([[Hitoshi Ashida]]: 1948, [[Morihiro Hosokawa]]: 1993 and [[Tomiichi Murayama]]: 1994), a few [[minority government]]s (most recently the [[Hata Cabinet]] in 1994 and at least numerically the [[Second Hashimoto Cabinet]] of 1996 during its first year, but with an [[Confidence and supply|extra-cabinet cooperation (閣外協力, ''kakugai kyōryoku'')]] agreement with two parties, sufficient to ensure safe majorities for most government initiatives), and several cabinets with a majority in the House of Representatives, but without legislative majority of their own (most recently the [[Democratic Party of Japan|DPJ]]-led cabinets, [[Kan Cabinet|Kan]] and [[Noda Cabinet]]s after the [[2010 Japanese House of Councillors election|2010 upper house election]]; cf. ''Nejire Kokkai''/"twisted Diets").{{cn|date=November 2023}}