Kazuhiro Sugita

was a Japanese government official who served as Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary from 2012 to 2021. As such, Sugita was the senior bureaucrat in Japan from the inauguration of the Second Abe Cabinet to the end of the Suga Cabinet. He was previously a police officer.

Life and career Kazuhiro Sugita was born in Saitama Prefecture on 11 April 1941. He attended the University of Tokyo and joined the National Police Agency after graduating in 1966. As a police officer he often held positions in the fields of internal security and intelligence gathering. He also served as secretary to the Chief Cabinet Secretary Masaharu Gotōda and his successor Takao Fujinami from 1982 to 1985, chief of the Tottori Prefectural police from 1986 to 1988, and as a division chief in the Security Bureau of the National Police Agency from 1988 to 1991.

After having served as chief of the Kanagawa Prefectural police since 1993, Sugita was appointed chief of the Security Bureau in October 1994. During his tenure he was involved in the response to the Great Hanshin earthquake, the Tokyo subway sarin attack, the attempted assassination of Commissioner General and the Japanese embassy hostage crisis in Peru.

When Shinzo Abe became prime minister for his second time in December 2012, Sugita was appointed to serve as Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary for administrative affairs, the senior position held by a bureaucrat in the government. This appointment was reportedly on the recommendation of , president of the Central Japan Railway Company, who was a prominent supporter of Abe and a friend of Sugita.

After that, Sugita returned to being an adviser to the Central Japan Railway Company. He received the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun in April 2022.

Sugita died on 22 December 2025 at the age of 84.