A Beautiful Bureaucrat Who “Looks Like Keiko Kitagawa” Secretly Gained Attention Behind the Ouster of the Minister of Justice

Former Minister of Justice Yasuhiro Hanashi was effectively ousted from his post on November 11 after a flood of criticism for his comment that “the Minister of Justice is a low-profile position that only makes the news when he stamps the death penalty. The controversial ouster drew a lot of attention, but behind the scenes, a female Justice Ministry bureaucrat was secretly the focus of attention among political reporters and Diet watchers.

She is Asuka Nakamura, a Justice Ministry bureaucrat. After serving as a prosecutor in Aomori and Utsunomiya, she was assigned to the Ministry of Justice’s Minister’s Secretariat in August of this year.

(A reporter covering politics for a national newspaper.) Former Justice Minister Banashi was harshly criticized by the opposition parties at meetings of the Justice Committee and other occasions, but Nakamura was there to support him from behind the scenes.

He was impressive in the way he supported Mr. Hanashi accurately while glancing at a mountain of documents. Her dignified appearance has earned her the nickname “the Keiko Kitagawa of Kasumigaseki” among political reporters.

With the ouster of former Justice Minister Banashi, it was assumed that the bureaucrats in the Secretarial Division would be replaced, but Nakamura is said to have continued to serve in the same capacity even after former Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Ken Saito, a member of the House of Representatives, succeeded him as Justice Minister. Whoever the minister is, it is the bureaucrat’s duty to support him or her. We look forward to her efforts.