Nariaki Nakayama (中山 成彬 Nakayama Nariaki, born June 7, 1943) is a Japanese politician. He served as Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in the Cabinet of Junichiro Koizumi and later as Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism under Taro Aso. Due to a series of gaffes after assuming his post under Aso, he resigned September 28, 2008.[1]
Graduating from the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo in 1966, Nakayama joined the Ministry of Finance. In 1986 he was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time, and in September 2004, he became the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
Nakayama, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, has led the fight to censor sections of junior high textbooks in Japan that make references to Japan's wartime sex slaves. He claims that the Nanjing Massacre was a complete fabrication, and is currently making efforts to revise the Kono statement of 1993.[2]
In the Cabinet of Prime Minister Taro Aso, appointed on 24 September 2008, Nakayama was appointed as Minister of Construction and Transport.[3] He made several controversial statements since his appointment that included calling the Japan Teachers' Union "a cancer for Japan's education system" and in the same speech said that "I will stand at the forefront to destroy the Japan Teachers' Union, which is a cancer for Japanese education". In a press conference related to his Minister of Tourism portfolio, he declared that Japan is basically "ethnically homogeneous," which greatly angered the Ainu, an indigenous ethnic minority living mostly in Northern Japan.[4]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sadakazu Tanigaki |
Minister of Land，Infrastructure，Transport and Tourism of Japan 2008 - 2008 |
Succeeded by Kazuyoshi Kaneko |
| Preceded by Takeo Kawamura |
Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan 2004 - 2005 |
Succeeded by Kenji Kosaka |