| Gen Nakatani | |
| Native Name Lang: | ja |
| Office: | Minister of Defense |
| Primeminister: | Shigeru Ishiba |
| Term Start: | 1 October 2024 |
| Predecessor: | Minoru Kihara |
| Primeminister1: | Shinzo Abe |
| Term Start1: | 24 December 2014 |
| Term End1: | 3 August 2016 |
| Predecessor1: | Akinori Eto |
| Successor1: | Tomomi Inada |
| Office2: | Director-General of the Japan Defense Agency |
| Primeminister2: | Yoshirō Mori Junichiro Koizumi |
| Term Start2: | 4 April 2001 |
| Term End2: | 30 September 2002 |
| Predecessor2: | Toshitsugu Saito |
| Successor2: | Shigeru Ishiba |
| Office3: | Member of the House of Representatives |
| Term Start3: | 19 February 1990 |
| Constituency3: | Kōchi at-large (1990–1996) Kōchi 2nd (1996–2014) Kōchi 1st (2014–present) |
| Birth Date: | 14 October 1957 |
| Birth Place: | Kōchi, Japan |
| Party: | Liberal Democratic |
| Alma Mater: | National Defense Academy |
| Allegiance: |  Japan |
| Serviceyears: | 1980–1984 |
| Rank: | First Lieutenant |
is a Japanese politician who was Director General of the Japan Defense Agency (now Japan Ministry of Defense) in the first cabinet of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in 2001-2002 and was appointed the Minister of Defense by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2014.[1] [2] Nakatani was again named to the position of Minister of Defense for the cabinet of Shigeru Ishiba in 2024.[3]
Nakatani was born in Kōchi and attended the National Defense Academy of Japan. He served for four years as a commissioned officer in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (20th Infantry Regiment and Airborne Training Unit).
Nakatani first ran for elected office as a Liberal Democratic Party candidate in the 1990 general election and won one of five seats representing Kōchi Prefecture, and held this seat in the 1993 general election. Following electoral reform in 1994 that divided Kōchi into three single-member districts, he successfully contested the Kōchi 2nd district in the 1996 general election and held this seat until the 2014 general election, when he switched to the Kōchi 1st district; the abolishment of the Kōchi 3rd district required the Liberal Democratic Party's Kōchi members to switch seats so that they could all remain in office. Yuji Yamamoto, who had held the 3rd district since 1996, switched to the 2nd district. Meanwhile Teru Fukui, who had held the 1st district since 1996, switched to the Shikoku proportional representation block.
Nakatani supported Koichi Kato and Taku Yamasaki's no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori in 2000, and was appointed to head the Japan Defense Agency under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in the following year.
On 28 April 2015, Nakatani was among the guests invited to the state dinner hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama in Abe’s honor at the White House.[4]
In a joint letter initiated by Norbert Röttgen and Anthony Gonzalez ahead of the 47th G7 summit in 2021, Nakatani joined some 70 legislators from Europe and the US in calling upon their leaders to take a tough stance on China and to "avoid becoming dependent" on the country for technology including artificial intelligence and 5G.[5]