The Supreme War Council (軍事参議官会議, Gunji sangikan kaigi) was established during the development of representative government in Meiji period Japan to further strengthen the authority of the state. Its first leader was Yamagata Aritomo (1838–1922), a Chōshū native who has been credited with the founding of the modern Imperial Japanese Army and was the first constitutional Prime Minister of Japan. The Supreme War Council developed a German-style general staff system with a chief of staff who had direct access to the Emperor and who could operate independently of the army minister and civilian officials. The Supreme War Council was the de facto inner cabinet of Japan prior to the Second Sino-Japanese War.
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Liaison Conference
From November 1937 and following Emperor Shōwa's order, the Gunji sangikan kaigi was in effect replaced by the Imperial General Headquarters-Government Liaison Conference. The Liaison Conferences were intended by the Emperor to bring the chiefs of the Army and Navy General Staff into closer consultation with his government, and to assist in integrating the decisions and needs of the two military sections of Imperial General Headquarters with the resources and policies of the rest of the government. The final decisions of Liaison Conferences were formally disclosed and approved at Imperial Conferences over which the Emperor presided in person at the Kyūden of the Tokyo Imperial Palace.
Its members were the following officials:
On the eve of the Attack on Pearl Harbor, the members of the conference were:
Supreme Council for the Direction of the War
In 1944, Prime Minister Kuniaki Koiso established the Supreme Council for the Direction of the War (Saikō sensō shidō kaigi), which replaced the earlier Supreme War Council. At the end of the war on August 14, 1945, it consisted of: