Upon his return to the House in December 2012, Ota was appointed as the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, a post he held until October 2015.

[1] Ota stayed with the paper for 18 months,[4] after which he continued to progress through the elite course of the Soka Gakkai organization, serving as head of their youth wing in 1982 and earning the nickname "the Prince of Komeito".

He contested the former Tokyo 8th district, finishing fourth in the race for three seats, 5,199 votes behind the Japanese Communist Party candidate Mitsuhiro Kaneko [ja].

[1] Ota contested the first election under the new system of districts in August 1996, retaining his seat in the Diet as one of 5 successful New Frontier candidates in the Tokyo PR block, where the party received 24.6% of the vote.

[1] In the June 2000 general election Ota was Komeito's number one candidate in the Tokyo PR block and the party received 12.7% of the vote.

The district had been represented since its inception by Liberal Democratic Party (JDP) member Eita Yashiro [ja], who swapped with Ota to run as a candidate in the Tokyo PR block.

At the next election in September 2005, Yashiro returned to contest the Tokyo 12th district as an independent candidate after voting against the LDP-Komeito coalition's postal reform bills and resigning from the LDP in protest in July.

[4] Ota comfortably retained his seat at the 2014 general election, receiving more votes than Aoki and Communist Party candidate Saori Ikeuchi combined.

[2] His appointment to the land, infrastructure, transport and tourism portfolio in 2012 was due to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreeing with his views on the necessity for disaster prevention to be incorporated into building projects.