Tomomi Inada

After graduating from Waseda University in 1981, Inada became a lawyer in 1985.

Tomomi Inada (稲田 朋美) is a Japanese lawyer and politician serving as a member of the Japanese House of Representatives, representing the 1st Fukui Prefecture since September 2005.

On 15 August 2005, after being "spotted... when she addressed a ruling-party audience on Japan's war crimes in 2005", Inada was nominated as an official candidate of the LDP by Shinzō Abe (later the Prime Minister).

Inada ran in the general election held on 11 September 2005 and was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time.

She initially belonged to the Osaka Bar Association but since 2008 has belonged to the Fukui Bar Association.

She stood for the government in a lawsuit relating to Yasukuni Shrine, and served as an attorney for the plaintiff concerning the hundred man killing contest that occurred during the Second Sino-Japanese War, as well as the commanders who fought in the Battle of Okinawa and a bereaved family suing Kenzaburō Ōe and Iwanami Shoten for their defamation of character towards the commanders.

When she served as an attorney for the families of the plaintiff concerning the hundred man killing contest, she tried to in court.

But her side lost, because the judges at the Supreme Court of Japan admitted some testimonies.

After the failure of the trial, she hoped to become a politician.

The House of Representatives (衆議院) is the lower house of the National Diet of Japan.

The Diet can be dissolved by the Prime Minister at will, preceding an election.

From January 2008 to December 2008, she was also a member of the committee for General Affairs.

The 45th Japanese general election was held on 30 August 2009.

Inada was re-elected to the House of Representatives with 50.0% of the vote.

Inada's main opponent, DPJ candidate Ryūzō Sasaki, obtained 45.6% of the popular vote.

The 46th Japanese general election was held on 16 December 2012.

Inada's primary opponent was JRP candidate Kōji Suzuki.

Inada won with 52.6% of the popular vote.

Kōji Suzuki got 22.9% of the vote.

In 2012 she was appointed as Minister of State for Regulatory Reform in the new Abe Cabinet.

The 47th Japanese general election was held on 14 December 2014.

Inada was re-elected to the Diet with 64.8% of the vote.

Inada's main opponent, JIP candidate Kōji Suzuki, obtained 26.5% of the popular vote.

In the Diet, she served as a member of the judicial committee, and the special committee for the establishment of political morals and the amendment of the Public Officers Election Act.

She held this post until September 2014.

Inada is highly esteemed by Abe because of her political and historical beliefs, which are close to Abe's. Inada believes in the spirits of Shinto.

Abe appointed her Chairperson of the LDP Policy Research Council in September 2014, even though the position is usually reserved for party members with longer political careers.

She previously served as the 14th Japanese Minister of Defense from August 2016 to July 2017, resigning in response to a cover up scandal within the Japanese Ministry of Defense.

She spent time as the Chairwoman of the Policy Research Council of the Liberal Democratic Party in her fourth term as a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature).

She is a native of Fukui Prefecture.

She expresses skepticism that comfort women, forced prostitutes for Japan in World War II, were compelled to work.

She also does not accept the international consensus on the number of deaths of the Nanjing Massacre.

She was implicated in the 2023–2024 Japanese slush fund scandal for over failing to record over 820,000 yen, but denied any responsibility for the scandal.

Despite having no military experience, Inada was named Defense Minister by Prime Minister Abe on 3 August 2016.

Inada is the first Defense Minister since Akinori Eto to have no record of prior military service.

Inada is also the first female defense minister since Yuriko Koike, and the second female Defense Minister in Japanese History.

On 15 September 2016, one month after becoming Defense Minister, Inada met with American Secretary of Defense Ash Carter in Washington, D.C. After the meeting, Inada stated that the Japanese military would increase its activity in the South China Sea and increase the number of military drills with the United States, which represented a significant change in Japanese policy regarding the South China Sea dispute.

In December 2016, immediately after Abe and Inada met U.S. President Barack Obama in Hawaii and Abe expressed 'everlasting condolences' for the casualties of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, Inada made her first visit to the Yasukuni Shrine since becoming defense minister.

Inada's visit followed by a day a visit to the shrine by Minister for reconstruction Masahiro Imamura.

Both visits prompted protests from China and South Korea and created calls for Japan to express similarly prominent condolences to its Asian neighbors.