Kimi Onoda

On July 10, 2022 Onoda won the 26th regular election for the House of Councillors by 180,000 votes (54.7% of the vote), far exceeding the previous runner-up margin (approximately 108,000 votes), with support from independent voters, despite the lack of support from the Komeito.

On August 12, 2022, she was appointed Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Defense in the Second Kishida Cabinet reshuffle.

Onoda was appointed Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Justice in the Suga Cabinet in September 2020.

In 2019, she joined the Takeshita Faction (Heisei Kenkyūkai).

However, on October 4, 2016, after the election, it was discovered that she had not completed the renunciation procedure in the U.S., which the Nationality Law imposes an effort requirement, and that she was in a dual nationality status. Onoda apologized for her lack of knowledge and said that she was proceeding with the procedures because it turned out that she also needed to apply to the U.S. government to renounce her U.S. citizenship. She then posted on her Facebook and Twitter pages the "Certificate of Loss of U.S. Citizenship" received on May 2, 2017.

At the time of her birth, Onoda did not have Japanese citizenship due to Japan's nationality law, which adopted a paternal-preferential lineage system at the time, but she later became a Japanese citizen. In October 2015, Onoda completed the procedures to select Japanese citizenship and renounce her U.S. citizenship in Japan, and ran for the House of Councillors in 2016.

After being a 5th year student at the Tokyo LDP Political Management School, Onoda ran for the Liberal Democratic Party-certified Kita Ward Councillor election in 2011 and was elected for the first time. In 2015, she was re-elected to the Kita Ward Council. The following year, in 2016, she ran for the 24th regular election for the House of Councillors as an LDP-certified candidate (Komeito nomination). Onoda defeated Kentaro Kuroishi, who was nominated by the Social Democratic Party and the Japanese Communist Party, and won the election as the successor to former House of Councillors Chairman Satsuki Eda of the Democratic Party, who announced his retirement from politics.

Kimi Onoda (小野田 紀美, Onoda Kimi, born December 7, 1982) is a Japanese politician. She serves as Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Defense since 2022 and as a member of the House of Councillors representing the Liberal Democratic Party. She previously served as Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Justice under the Suga Cabinet (2020-2021).

Onoda was born on December 7, 1982, in Chicago, Illinois, United States, to a Japanese mother and an American father. She moved to Setouchi, Okayama Prefecture, Japan at the age of one. After graduating from Seishin Girls' High School, she studied politics at Takushoku University. There she acquired a high school teacher's license in civics. After graduating from university, she was in charge of public relations and promotion at a video game company.