Prime Minister Requirements

Hello, What are the requirements to be a prime minister. Does the person have to be a "natural-born citizen"? and what part of the constitution talks about this?

Well basically, in Layman's terms, the Liberal Democratic Party is the rulling coalation and whoever they chose to be their president is almost guaranteed to be elected as prime minister.

And yeah, the prime minister has to be a natural born citizen of Japan. And i doubt they have a law that specifically states this but because of the way Japan works, they would never even allow a racially mixed "Japanese" to be prime minister. I have a gut feeling that you have to be 100% by blood and born in Japan to be prime minister. So you're never going to see someone the likes of Obama rise up in Japan.

I think its stated in Article 5 of the constitution, but I could be wrong.

To become Prime Minister of Japan, you must be the (elected) leader of the ruling party - meaning, to begin with, you need to be a diet member ("diet" meaning the national congress). To be elected as diet member, to run as a candidate, first of all, you need to be a Japanese national of at least 25 years of age (for House of Representatives - lower house) and 30 years of age (for House of Councilors - upper house).

Now comes the definition of Japanese national. I believe there is a member of House of Councilors, who is a naturalized Japanese - Mr. Turunen (from Finland). Whether he becomes popular enough to ever become a party leader would be another question :)

The sections of the Japanese Constitution in which therequirements for the prime minister are mentioned are articles 66 and 67 in chapter 5.