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'Sadaijin' (左大臣), most commonly translated as "Minister of the Left", was a government position in Japan in the late Nara and Heian periods. The position was created in 702 as part of the ''Daijō-kan'' (State Department) structure, by the Taihō Code.
The ''sadaijin'' was the Senior Minister of State, overseeing all branches of the Department of State (''Daijō-kan'') with the ''Udaijin'' (the Minister of the Right) as his deputy.
Within the ''Daijō-kan'', the ''sadaijin'' was second only to the ''Daijō Daijin'' (the Great Minister, or Chancellor of the Realm) in power and influence. Frequently, a member of the Fujiwara family would take the position in order to help justify and exercise the power and influence the family held.
The post of ''sadaijin'', along with the rest of the ''Daijō-kan'' structure, gradually lost power over the 10th and 11th centuries, as the Fujiwara came to dominate politics more and more. The system was essentially powerless by the end of the 12th century, when the Minamoto, a warrior clan, seized control of the country from the court aristocracy (''kuge''). However, it is not entirely clear when the ''Daijō-kan'' system was formally dismantled prior to the Meiji era.

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★ Sansom, George (1958). ''A History of Japan to 1334''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.