37 Japanese defense ministers

The Minister of Defense , or Bōei-shō (防衛相), is the Cabinet of Japan member in charge of the Ministry of Defense. The current Minister of Defense is Nobuo Kishi.

Akinori Eto is a Japanese politician and the former defense minister of Japan.

Seishirō Etō is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. He is affiliated to the revisionist lobby Nippon Kaigi.

Yasukazu Hamada is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. A native of Futtsu and graduate of Senshu University he was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1993.

Yoshimasa Hayashi is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, Koga Faction. He is a member of the House of Councillors in the Diet, currently serving his third term in the Upper House representing Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Yasuo Ichikawa is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan, a member of the House of Councillors in the Diet and is the former Minister of Defence.

Yukihiko Ikeda was a Japanese bureaucrat and the Liberal Democratic Party politician who served as foreign minister. He was in office from 11 January 1996 to 11 September 1997. Ikeda was known to be "Mr. No" in the political life.

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

Shigeru Ishiba is a Japanese politician. Ishiba is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and is the leader of the Suigetsukai party faction, and a member of the Heisei Kenkyūkai faction, which was then led by Fukushiro Nukaga, until 2011.

Tanzan Ishibashi was a Japanese journalist and politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1956 to 1957. He was also Director General of the Japan Defense Agency in addition to being Prime Minister. During the same time he was the 2nd president of the Liberal Democratic Party, the majority party in the Diet. From 1952 to 1968 he was also the president of Rissho University. Being a member of Nichiren-shū, the name Tanzan is a religious name, as his profane name was Seizō (省三).

Soichiro Ito was a Japanese politician whom served in the House of Representative from 1967 to his death in 2001. From 1981 to 1982 Ito was Director General of the Japan Defense Agency from 1981 to 1982.

Takeshi Iwaya is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. He served as the Minister of Defense from 2 October 2018 to 11 September 2019.

Tsutomu Kawara was a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party.

Nobusuke Kishi was a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960. He is the maternal grandfather of Shinzo Abe, twice prime minister from 2006 to 2007 and 2012 to 2020.

Fumio Kishida is a Japanese politician and the former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan from 2012 to 2017. He is a member of the House of Representatives and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). He served in Yasuo Fukuda's cabinet as minister of state for Okinawa and northern territories affairs, science and technology policy, quality-of-life policy, and regulatory reform. Within the LDP, Kishida is associated with more moderate viewpoints.

Toshimi Kitazawa is a previous Japanese defence minister. He is a politician of the Democratic Party of Japan, a member of the House of Councillors in the Diet. A native of Nagano, Nagano and graduate of Waseda University, he was elected to the House of Councillors for the first time in 1992 after serving in the assembly of Nagano Prefecture for five terms. He had joined the Democratic Party of Japan in 1998. On 16 September 2009; Kitazawa was appointed as the Minister of Defence by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. He was re-appointed by Prime Minister Naoto Kan in the cabinet shift, and was the Minister of Defence until 2 September 2011.

Yuriko Koike is a Japanese politician who currently serves as the Governor of Tokyo. She graduated from Cairo University as the top student in 1976 and was a member of the House of Representatives of Japan from 1993 to 2016, and was previously the Minister of Defense in the cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, but resigned in August 2007 after only 54 days in office. On 31 July 2016, Koike was elected Governor of Tokyo, the city's first female Governor. Koike was re-elected Governor of Tokyo on 5 July 2020 in a landslide, winning 59.7% of the vote.

Junya Koizumi was a Japanese politician who served as Director General of the Japan Defense Agency during the 1960s.

Masahiko Kōmura is a Japanese political activist, full-time staff and former Vice-President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). He was Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1998 to 1999 and again from 2007 to 2008, and he is a member of the House of Representatives for Yamaguchi 1st district. He is also the current Deputy President of his political party the Liberal Democratic Party.

Tarō Kōno is a Japanese politician belonging to the Liberal Democratic Party. He has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1996, and has served as Minister for Administrative Reform and Regulatory Reform under Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga since September 2020. He previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defense under Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.

Fumio Kyūma is a Japanese politician who has served in the Diet of Japan since 1980. Kyuma graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1964 and worked for the Ministry of Agriculture. He was elected to the Nagasaki Prefectural Assembly in 1971 serving three terms before being elected to the Diet as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) for Nagasaki Number 2.

Sohei Miyashita was a Japanese politician. He held different cabinet posts.

Satoshi Morimoto is a Japanese politician, scholar and critic specializing in international politics and national security. He was Minister of Defense from July to December 2012, and is professor at Takushoku University and member of the Congressional Forum for New Japan.

Shozaburo Nakamura is a Japanese business leader and politician. He served in the House of Representatives of Japan and was the minister of justice from 1998 to 1999.

Yasuhiro Nakasone was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party from 1982 to 1987. He was a member of the House of Representatives for more than 50 years. He was best known for pushing through the privatization of state-owned companies, and for helping to revitalize Japanese nationalism during and after his term as prime minister.

Gen Nakatani is a Japanese politician who was Director General of the Japan Defense Agency in the first cabinet of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in 2001-2002 and was appointed as the Minister of Defense by current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2014.

Hosei Norota was a Japanese politician of the People's New Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. A native of Noshiro, Akita and graduate of Chuo University he joined the Ministry of Construction in 1953. Leaving the ministry, he was elected to the House of Councilors in the Diet for the first time in 1977. In 1983 he was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time. From 1995 to 1996 he served as the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Tomiichi Murayama's cabinet. In 1998 he served briefly as Director General of the Japan Defense Agency.

Fukushiro Nukaga is a Japanese politician and a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1983 and represents Ibaraki's 2nd district. He was Minister of Finance from 2007 to 2008.

Yoshinori Ohno was Japan's Minister of State for Defense in Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's third Cabinet from 2004 to 2005. He is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party.

Itsunori Onodera is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party and a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. He served as the Minister of Defense from 2012 to 2014 and again from 2017 to 2018.

Toshitsugu Saito is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. A native of Fuji, Shizuoka and graduate of Sophia University, he attended Waseda University for graduate study and business school at the University of Washington in the United States. He was elected for the first time in 1986.

Tokuichiro Tamazawa is a Japanese politician serving in the House of Representatives in the Diet as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He is a native of Tarō, Iwate and attended a graduate school at Waseda University. He was elected for the first time in 1976 as an independent after unsuccessful runs in 1969 and 1972.

Naoki Tanaka is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan, a member of the House of Councillors in the Diet, from Niigata Prefectural electorate. He is a native of Kanazawa, Ishikawa and graduate of Keio University.

Juichi Tsushima (1888–1967) was the 7th President of the Japanese Olympic Committee (1959–1962). He was a graduate of the University of Tokyo. From 1957 to 1958 he was Director General of the Japan Defense Agency.

Sōsuke Uno was a Japanese politician who was briefly Prime Minister of Japan in 1989. A scandal exposed by the geisha Mitsuko Nakanishi contributed to his premature resignation from office after just sixty-eight days.

Hideo Usui is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet.

Taku Yamasaki is a Japanese politician who served in the House of Representatives from 1972 to 2003 and from 2005 to 2009. He directed the Director General of the Japan Defense Agency for two months in 1989, and served as Minister of Construction from 1991 to 1992. He was a prominent faction leader in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) during the late 1990s and early 2000s, and served as its Secretary-General and Vice President under Prime Minister Jun'ichirō Koizumi.