With the establishment of the DPJ government, Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio introduced a series of institutional changes in order to transform the existing bureaucracy-controlled government and to establish political leadership. These changes, however, created instability and irregularity in Japanese politics. As a result, they were reversed by his successors.

Since the 2001 administrative reform, the Cabinet Secretariat has played an increasingly important role as core executive in Japan's policy-making. With newly defined authority and expansion of the office, the Secretariat has dealt with politically difficult policies and demonstrated its ability to coordinate conflicting interests among various ministries.