Tomomi Inada

Tomomi Inada (稲田 朋美, Inada Tomomi; born 20 February 1959) is a Japanese lawyer and politician serving as a member of the House of Representatives, representing the 1st Fukui Prefecture since September 2005. She previously served as 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 (national legislature). She is a native of Fukui Prefecture. She expresses skepticism that comfort women, forced prostitutes for Japan in World War II, were compelled to work. She also does not accept the international consensus on the number of deaths of the Nanjing Massacre. She was implicated in the 2023–2024 Japanese slush fund scandal for over failing to record over 820,000 yen, but denied any responsibility for the scandal.