Gen Nakatani

Gen Nakatani is a Liberal Democratic Party Diet member from Kochi Prefecture and the Minister of Defense of Japan. He served in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force before entering electoral politics. His cabinet record includes prior service in defence-related portfolios and senior LDP party roles.

His current tenure as Defence Minister has overlapped with the period during which the Parliamentary League for Unraveling Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena from a National Security Perspective consolidated its proposals to the executive branch.

On 16 May 2025, Nakatani received from the Parliamentary League the League's first formal proposal: a written request that the Ministry of Defense establish a specialised division to collect and analyse UAP data, disclose findings publicly, and report regularly to the Diet. In his response on the public record, Nakatani stated that the ministry would "make efforts to meet the expectations of lawmakers and the public."

On 16 May 2026, Nakatani was among the signatories on the League's formal submission to the executive branch of its 30 March 2026 proposal for a coordinating UAP office under the Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary for Crisis Management. The 16 May 2026 submission converted the 30 March draft into a Diet-level document with sponsoring signatories and a routing destination, the next procedural step before the proposal can be assigned to a Diet committee.