Do we like Tomomi Inada?
Our score: 5 out of 10. Real, costly-in-her-party work on LGBTQ+ understanding and women's representation, offset by history stances that many neighbours find hurtful and a ministry scandal.
Tomomi Inada is a long-serving Liberal Democratic Party MP who rose as a protégé of the late prime minister Shinzo Abe. The Guardian described her as a nationalist and an Abe protégé, and she briefly looked like a future party leader. She was Japan's defence minister from 2016 until she quit in July 2017.
That exit is the big stain. Reuters reported she stepped down after a string of gaffes and a suspected cover-up at her ministry, where officials may have tried to hide logs showing worsening security in South Sudan. The report didn't confirm a direct role for her, and she has repeatedly denied concealing the logs, though she said she felt responsible for the damage to the ministry's credibility.
On history, she's hard to defend. Asked in 2016 whether Japanese troops massacred civilians in Nanjing, she repeatedly sidestepped, saying whether Japan's wartime actions were an invasion “depends on one's point of view”, and China's defence ministry hit back hard. The Guardian also reports she has visited Yasukuni Shrine and questioned claims that the Japanese military forced Korean women into sexual slavery.
On LGBTQ+ issues she's an odd, partial ally. In 2019 she told Bloomberg she wanted to “promote understanding”, called it a human rights issue and invited community members to LDP headquarters, while colleagues warned of falling birth rates. But she wasn't pushing for marriage equality or an anti-discrimination ban, and the 2023 law that followed was slammed by activists as watered down.
Where she's more consistently good is women in politics. In 2020 she called Japan a “democracy without women”, aimed most of her anger at her own party and told of local events where women cooked while men listened. The Guardian adds she backed single mothers and a push to let married couples keep separate surnames, which conservatives saw as a threat.
The record is thin on the recent stuff. The May 2026 Ground News item only says her opposition to a retrial-system review is drawing attention inside the LDP. The review itself followed the 2024 acquittal of Iwao Hakamada, held for decades before being cleared, so wherever she lands there, it touches a genuine justice issue.