Gen Nakatani
中谷 元
Official portrait, 2024
Minister of Defense
In office 1 October 2024 – 21 October 2025
Prime Minister	Shigeru Ishiba
Preceded by	Minoru Kihara
Succeeded by	Shinjirō Koizumi
In office 24 December 2014 – 3 August 2016
Prime Minister	Shinzo Abe
Preceded by	Akinori Eto
Succeeded by	Tomomi Inada
Director-General of the Japan Defense Agency
In office 4 April 2001 – 30 September 2002
Prime Minister	Yoshirō Mori Junichiro Koizumi
Preceded by	Toshitsugu Saito
Succeeded by	Shigeru Ishiba
Member of the House of Representatives
Incumbent
Assumed office 19 February 1990
Preceded by	Ryōhei Tamura
Constituency	Kōchi at-large (1990–1996) Kōchi 2nd (1996–2014) Kōchi 1st (2014–present)
Personal details
Born	(1957-10-14) 14 October 1957 (age 68) Kōchi, Japan
Party	Liberal Democratic
Alma mater	National Defense Academy
Military service
Allegiance	Japan
Branch/service	Japan Ground Self-Defense Force
Years of service	1980–1984
Rank	First Lieutenant

Gen Nakatani (中谷 元, Nakatani Gen; born 14 October 1957) is a Japanese politician who was Director General of the Japan Defense Agency (now Japan Ministry of Defense) in the first cabinet of former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi in 2001-2002 and was appointed the Minister of Defense by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2014.^[1][2] Nakatani was again named to the position of Minister of Defense for the cabinet of Shigeru Ishiba in 2024.^[3]

Early life and education

Nakatani was born in Kōchi and attended the National Defense Academy of Japan. He served for four years as a commissioned officer in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (20th Infantry Regiment and Airborne Training Unit).

Political career

Nakatani first ran for elected office as a Liberal Democratic Party candidate in the 1990 general election and won one of five seats representing Kōchi Prefecture, and held this seat in the 1993 general election. Following electoral reform in 1994 that divided Kōchi into three single-member districts, he successfully contested the Kōchi 2nd district in the 1996 general election and held this seat until the 2014 general election, when he switched to the Kōchi 1st district; the abolishment of the Kōchi 3rd district required the Liberal Democratic Party's Kōchi members to switch seats so that they could all remain in office. Yuji Yamamoto, who had held the 3rd district since 1996, switched to the 2nd district. Meanwhile Teru Fukui, who had held the 1st district since 1996, switched to the Shikoku proportional representation block.

Nakatani supported Koichi Kato and Taku Yamasaki's no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori in 2000, and was appointed to head the Japan Defense Agency under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in the following year.

On 28 April 2015, Nakatani was among the guests invited to the state dinner hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama in Abe’s honor at the White House.^[4]

Political positions

In a joint letter initiated by Norbert Röttgen and Anthony Gonzalez ahead of the 47th G7 summit in 2021, Nakatani joined some 70 legislators from Europe and the US in calling upon their leaders to take a tough stance on China and to "avoid becoming dependent" on the country for technology including artificial intelligence and 5G.^[5]

In December 2025, Nakatani announced his support for a constitutional amendment that would recognize same-sex marriage.^[6]

Notes

References

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