Organized with an emphasis on balanced assignment, the cabinet consisted mainly of people from domain cliques, with 4 people from the Choshu Domain and four from the Satsuma Domain being inducted into the cabinet (however, Kiyotaka KURODA, who was thought to be the central figure of the Satsuma clique, did not get a place in the Cabinet at that time).
いわゆる藩閥出身者が殆どを占め、長州藩・薩摩藩出身者が各4名ずつ入閣させる（ただし、薩摩閥の中核と見られていた黒田清隆は当初入閣せず）などのバランス重視型の布陣となった。