Akihisa Nagashima

Akihisa Nagashima
長島 昭久
Official portrait, 2024
Special Advisor to the Prime Minister
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 October 2024 Serving with Masafumi Mori, Wakako Yata
Prime Minister	Shigeru Ishiba
Preceded by	Hirotaka Ishihara Yasuhiro Ozato
In office 5 September 2011 – 1 October 2012 Serving with Hiranao Honda, Shunichi Mizuoka, Yoshinori Suematsu, Yoshio Tezuka
Prime Minister	Yoshihiko Noda
Preceded by	Hirohisa Fujii Hirokazu Shiba Kiyomi Tsujimoto Renhō Shizuka Kamei
Succeeded by	Mitsuo Mitani Hiroshi Ogushi Keiro Kitagami Yoshihiro Kawakami
State Minister of Defense
In office 2 October 2012 – 26 December 2012
Prime Minister	Yoshihiko Noda
Preceded by	Shu Watanabe
Succeeded by	Akinori Eto
Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Defense
In office 18 September 2009 – 17 September 2010 Serving with Daizo Kusuda
Prime Minister	Yukio Hatoyama Naoto Kan
Preceded by	Nobuo Kishi Ryota Takeda
Succeeded by	Daisuke Matsumoto Hajime Hirota
Member of the House of Representatives
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 November 2003
Preceded by	Etsuko Kawada
Constituency	Tokyo 21st (2003–2005; 2009–2014; 2017–2021) Tokyo PR (2005–2009; 2014–2017; 2021–present)
Personal details
Born	(1962-02-17) 17 February 1962 Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
Political party	LDP (since 2019)
Other political affiliations	DPJ (2000–2016) DP (2016–2017) Kibo (2017–2018) Independent (2018–2019)
Website	Official Website Weblog

Akihisa Nagashima (長島 昭久, Nagashima Akihisa) is a member of the House of Representatives of Japan as well as a visiting professor at Chuo University's Graduate School of Public Studies. He served as the Parliamentary Vice Minister of Defense in the Kan Cabinet.

Early life and education

Nagashima was born on February 17, 1962, in Yokohama-City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.

Nagashima received his B.A. in Law in 1984, his B.A. in Government in 1986, and his Master of Laws (LL.M) from Keio University in 1988. He received his M.A. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in 1997.

From 1993 to 1995, Nagashima was a visiting scholar at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, before becoming a research associate in Asian Security Studies in 1997, and an Adjunct Senior Fellow in Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, Washington, D.C., in 1999. From 2000 to 2001, he was a visiting scholar at the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Washington, D.C. After coming back to Japan, he taught as a lecturer at Keio University's Graduate School of Law from 2003 to 2007.

Political career

Nagashima started his political career with the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). During his time as an opposition legislator at the National Diet of Japan, he has served as the Senior Director of the Committee on National Security, Director of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Special Committee on North Korean Abductions and Other Issues, as well as a member of the Committee on Education, Sports, Science and Technology, the Special Committee on Iraq and Terrorism and the Special Committee on Responses of Armed Attacks. From 2003 to 2004, he served as the Deputy Director-General of the Cultural and Organizations Department of the DPJ, as well as the Next Vice-Minister of Defense before becoming the Next Minister of Defense from 2005 to 2006. Later he has served as the Vice-Chair of the Diet Affairs Committee, the Policy Research Committee, and Deputy Secretary General of the DPJ.

Nagashima left the DP in April 2017 due to a disagreement with the party's cooperation with the JCP. Prior to the 2017 general election, he participated in the foundation of the Party of Hope. When Hope merged with the Democratic Party in May 2018 to form the Democratic Party for the People, Nagashima decided not to join the new party and became an independent member instead. In June 2019 he joined the LDP.

Formerly affiliated to the openly revisionist lobby Nippon Kaigi, Nagashima contributed, with Yoshiko Sakurai, Eriko Sanya, and Masahiro Akiyama, to a forum on the Constitution about security, independence, and the article 9 in their journal in July 2009. In September 2015, Nagashima announced his withdrawal from Nippon Kaigi.

Political positions

In a joint letter initiated by Norbert Röttgen and Anthony Gonzalez ahead of the 47th G7 summit in 2021, Nagashima 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.