Masashi Nakano

Masashi Nakano (中野 正志, Nakano Masashi, born 29 February 1948) is a Japanese politician and former Secretary-General of the Party for Japanese Kokoro. A native of Shiogama, Miyagi and graduate of Tohoku Gakuin University, he was first elected to the assembly of Miyagi Prefecture in 1983. During his second term as an assemblyman, he contested the national House of Councillors election in 1989 as an independent but was defeated. He was elected to the House of Representatives in the national Diet as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party in the 1996 general election, representing Miyagi District No.2. In the 2000 general election he was defeated in his district by Sayuri Kamata. In the 2003 general election he was again defeated by Kamata in Miyagi No.2, but was elected to return to the House of Representatives as a member for the Tōhoku proportional block. He retained his seat in the 2005 general election and was appointed Senior Vice-Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry in Shinzo Abe's first ministry in 2007. He contested his seat in the 2009 general election as a Liberal Democratic Party candidate and with an endorsement from the Komeito Party, but lost his seat as the LDP lost a general election for the first time since the party was formed in 1955.