Tomomi Inada

Tomomi Inada
稲田 朋美
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Member of the House of Representatives of the 1st Fukui Prefecture
Incumbent
Assumed office 12 September 2005
Majority	78,969 (50.00%)
Minister in charge of Administrative Reform
In office 26 December 2012 – 3 September 2014
Prime Minister	Shinzō Abe
Preceded by	Katsuya Okada
Succeeded by	Haruko Arimura
Minister in charge of Civil Service Reform
In office 26 December 2012 – 3 September 2014
Prime Minister	Shinzō Abe
Preceded by	Katsuya Okada
Succeeded by	Haruko Arimura
Minister in charge of "Cool Japan" Strategy
In office 26 December 2012 – 3 September 2014
Prime Minister	Shinzō Abe
Preceded by	Inaugural holder
Succeeded by	Shunichi Yamaguchi
Minister in charge of "Challenge Again" Initiative
In office 26 December 2012 – 3 September 2014
Prime Minister	Shinzō Abe
Preceded by	Inaugural holder
Succeeded by	Shunichi Yamaguchi
Minister of State for Regulatory Reform
In office 26 December 2012 – 3 September 2014
Prime Minister	Shinzō Abe
Preceded by	Inaugural holder
Succeeded by	Haruko Arimura
Personal details
Born	(1959-02-20) 20 February 1959 Imadate, Fukui, Japan
Political party	Chairman, Policy Research Council (2014-) of Liberal Democratic Party of Japan
Alma mater	Waseda University

Tomomi Inada (稲田 朋美, Inada Tomomi, born 20 February 1959) is a Japanese lawyer and politician. She is currently the Chairman of the Policy Research Council of the Liberal Democratic Party and in her fourth term as a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). She is a native of Imadate, Fukui.

Law career

After graduating Waseda University in 1981, she became a lawyer in 1985. She first belonged to the Osaka bar association and has belonged to the Fukui bar association since 2008. She stands for the government in relation to the lawsuit relating to Yasukuni Shrine, and served as an attorney for the plaintiff concerning the "Contest to kill 100 people using a sword" 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 "Contest to kill 100 people using a sword" that allegedly occurred during the Second Sino-Japanese War, she tried to win her points in court. But her side lost in court, because the judge at Supreme Court of Japan admitted some testimonies. After the failure of the trial, she hoped to become a politician. She wanted to proudly support the honor of Japanese soldiers during the Second Sino-Japanese War and their families, from the political side rather than the judicial side.。

Political career

On 15 August 2005 Inada was nominated as an official candidate of the LDP, by Shinzō Abe (Later Prime Minister), and ran in the general election held on 11 September 2005. There she was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time. 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. From January 2008 to December 2008 she was also a member of the committee for General Affairs. In the 45th general election on 30 August 2009 she was elected to the House of Representatives for the second time. In 2012 she was appointed as Minister of State for Regulatory Reform in the new Shinzō Abe Cabinet. She held this post until September 2014.

Inada is highly estimated by Abe because of her political and historical beliefs, which are close to Abe's. Inada believes in the spirits of Shinto which dates back to Jinmu Emperor as well as the future invention, never supports the total denial of Japanese actions in Asia during WWII & Second Sino-Japanese War and is expected, by the Japanese patriots including Shinzo Abe, to realize the amendment of Japanese Constitution, which was founded under the USA occupation policies. 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. In addition, she is so-called nominated as the future Prime Minister, by Abe's strong wish, according to Japanese weekly magazines.

Right-wing positions

Following her historical and political beliefs, Inada is affiliated to the openly revisionist lobby Nippon Kaigi.

Yasukuni Shrine, a Japanese Shinto shrine to war dead who served the Emperor and Japan during wars from 1867–1951, has been controversial, due to the enshrinement of International Military Tribunal for the Far East war criminals. But, Japanese nationalist has been paying respect at the shrine. In 2006, Inada said, "Any Japanese national, who criticizes Japanese Prime Minister's visit for paying respect at Yasukuni Shrine, could be the person who cares nothing for the souls of dead Japanese soldiers at the war and such a Japanese national could be deprived of the right to comment on anything about Moral/Upbringing." and "Yasukuni Shirine is not the place for the oath of peace, but the place for the oath to fight desperately against the aliens at the risk of Japan, following the honored spirits of the dead soldiers at Yasukuni Shrine."

Inada questioned why the 2007 film Yasukuni (produced by Chinese diretor and some scenes of the movie were politically expressed by Chinese side) received Japanese government funds, and said that such funds should not be given to films with a "political agenda".

Inada was a supporter of right-wing filmmaker Satoru Mizushima's 2007 revisionist film The Truth about Nanjing, which denied that the Nanking Massacre ever occurred. After Takashi Kawamura, Mayor of Nagoya City, made denialist statements about the Nanking Massacre, on 6 March 2012 in Tokyo, at the Simposium to support Kawamura's statement, She opposed to the history class in the Japanese school education, because the teachers, who could be members of Japan Teachers Union and be sympathized with China, teach the pupils about the Nanking Massacre of the Second Sino-Japanese War at the school classes. At that time, She said, " When Japanese Prime Minister definitely denies the Nanking Massacre, such a non-sense school education could end."

Inada insisted that The International Military Tribunal for the Far East after World War II, was against the principles of the modern law and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East was only a part of the policy of Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers during the Allied occupation (mainly United States' occupation) of Japan after WWII, and she also said that Japan should totally deny the historical viewpoints, which too much emphasized the Japanese military invasion in China, following the decision of The International Military Tribunal for the Far East. In August 2015, Inada expressed her intent to form a committee to verify the authenticity of the tribunal and the views of Japanese history it employed.

Inada was shown smiling in a picture with Kazunari Yamada, leader of the Nazi National Socialist Japanese Labor Party (NSJAP), who has praised Adolf Hitler and the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. But, after the photo was released by the press, she said publicly that she was unaware of his career. A staff member of Sanae Takaichi, Minister of Internal Affairs, with whom she was at this moment, said that he "was an assistant for an interviewer", and "We had no idea who he was back then, but he requested a snapshot."

Inada was a signatory to the "THE FACTS" advertorial, supported by The Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact and published in The Washington Post on 14 June 2007. The advertorial asserts that there is no proof of the Imperial Japanese Army's system of Comfort women during the Pacific War. She also helped to launch the LDP Special Mission Committee to Restore the Honor and Trust of Japan, which in 2015 recommended to Prime Minister Abe that Japan counter what it views as false allegations against Japan regarding the Comfort Women issue. When the committee demanded that an American textbook publisher correct its depictions of comfort women that were "at odds with the position of Japan," Inada called these depictions an "infringement upon the human rights of Japanese children living in the United States." On the other hand, in a 2013 press conference, Inada called the Comfort Women system a grievous violation of women's human rights.

In 2015, when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe prepared the statement on 70th anniversary of the end of WWII, as a patriotic politician, Inada clearly said, "No need to express the word like remorse.", "stop continuimg to apologize (to China and other Asian countries)", "military invasion is not appropriate word (to express the Japanese action in Asian countries before the end of the war)."

See also

• Koizumi Children
• Shinzō Abe

External links

• Official website in Japanese.