is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party and a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

in the

Diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

(national legislature). He served as the

Minister of Defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

from 2012 to 2014 and again from 2017 to 2018.

Early life and education

A native of

Kesennuma, Miyagi is a city in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 59,803 and a population density of in 26,390 households. The total area of the city is . Large sections of the city were destroyed by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake an ...

, Onodera was born on May 5, 1960. He received a bachelor's degree from Tokyo University of Fisheries in 1983. He entered Matsushita Institute of Government and Management in 1990. Then he studied politics at

the University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

. He graduated from both and obtained his master's degree in political science in 1993.

Career

Onodera joined the government of Miyagi Prefecture in April 1983. He worked at

Tohoku Fukushi University is a Japanese private university in Sendai. Notable alumni Politics *Shintaro Ito *Itsunori Onodera Sports *Baseball ** Mamoru Kishida **Takashi Saito **Kazuhiro Sasaki ** Kazuhiro Wada **Ken Kadokura **Tomoaki Kanemoto *Figure skating **Akiko ...

as special lecturer, assistant professor and guest professor from April 1994 to January 1998. He was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in December 1997 from Miyagi Prefecture No. 6, but resigned in 2000 in the wake of an electoral donation scandal. In October 2002, he became an associate professor at Tohoku Fukushi University. However, he ran for the house in 2003 and was re-elected. He served as parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs for two times from 2004 to 2005. He served at and chaired different committees regarding foreign affairs, and was the head of the LDP's foreign affairs division. He was appointed senior vice-minister for foreign affairs in August 2007.

Shinzō Abe Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍晋三, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 20 ...

named Itsunori Onodera defense minister on December 26, 2012. Like Abe, the majority of his government, and many predecessors as defense ministers, Onodera is affiliated to the revisionist lobby group

Nippon Kaigi The Right side up ...

. Onodera supports Japan having the ability to launch a first-strike attack against enemy bases. Onodera has advocated for the installation of the

Aegis Ashore The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System (Aegis BMD or ABMD), also known as ''Sea-Based Midcourse'', is a United States Department of Defense Missile Defense Agency program developed to provide missile defense against short to intermediate-r ...

missile defense Missile defense is a system, weapon, or technology involved in the detection, tracking, interception, and also the destruction of attacking missiles. Conceived as a defense against nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), ...

system in Japan, travelling to proposed installation sites in

Akita Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Provinces and prefectures" in ; "Tōhoku" in . Its population is approximately 966,000 (as of 1 October 2019) and its ge ...

and

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 Square kilometre, km2 (2,359 Square mile, sq mi). Y ...

to win local consent.

Personal life

Onodera is married and has two children.

References

External links

, - 1960 births 21st-century Japanese politicians Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians Living people Japanese defense ministers Members of Nippon Kaigi Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) People from Kesennuma, Miyagi University of Tokyo alumni {{Japan-politician-1960s-stub