Hiromu Nonaka

Hiromu Nonaka (野中 広務, Nonaka Hiromu, born October 20, 1925) is a Japanese LDP politician and former member of the House of Representatives. He is a lecturer at Heian Jogakuin University.

Hiromu Nonaka was inaugurated as Minister of State on June 30, 1994.

He has held the following posts:

• Minister of Home Affairs and Head of the National Public Safety Commission, 1994-1995 (Tomiichi Murayama administration)
• Chief Cabinet Secretary, 1998-1999 (Keizo Obuchi administration)
• Head of the Okinawa Development Agency, 1999

In 2001 he was seen as a contender for the post of Prime Minister of Japan. During his candidacy, future Prime Minister Tarō Asō allegedly made remarks disparaging towards his Burakumin heritage. While Asō initially denied the remarks, they appeared to be confirmed later. Nonaka later remarked that he would "never forgive" Asō for the remarks.

Nonaka also established and operated Japan's first care facility for individuals with profound physical disabilities during the 1970s.

On June 5, 2013, Hiromu Nonaka led a delegation including former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to visit Beijing. They conferred with Liu Yunshan, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China. In 1972, the Japanese government underwent negotiations with Chinese Primer Zhou Enlai to establish formal diplomatic relationship and signed the China-Japan Joint Declaration when Nonaka was one of a member of the Kyoto prefectural assembly, eleven years before becoming a member of the House of Representatives. He testified before media what he said was told at a Tanaka faction's workshop held in Hakone not long after the meeting with Zhou Enlai:

As a living witness, I would like to make clear (what I heard), just after the normalization of relations, I was told clearly by then-Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka that a decision was made on the normalization by shelving the Senkaku issue. --former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka

This testimony is in stark contradiction to claims made by Japanese officials including then-Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara in October 2010, present Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in May 2013, and present Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga also in May 2013. Mr. Nonaka's recall drew fires from the present Chief Cabinat Secretary Yoshihide Suga.

Sankei Shimbun poses a question whether an incumbent Prime Minister divulged such an important national secret to a minor local assembly member like Nonaka and others and it is too unnatural such a comment has not been surfaced until his testimony.