[1] He was previously the Minister of Finance from 2007 to 2008,[2] and served twice as Director-General of the Japan Defense Agency and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary.

[1] After working as a reporter for the Sankei Shimbun, he entered politics and was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1983.

[4] He was named Minister of State in charge of economic and fiscal policy, as well as IT policy, on 5 December 2000, as part of Prime Minister Yoshirō Mori's second cabinet,[5] but he resigned on 23 January 2001, following criticism regarding 15 million yen he had received from the mutual aid foundation KSD.

In April 2015 he also became chief of the LDP "Headquarters for accelerating reconstruction after the Great East Japan Earthquake".

[12][13] In September 2019 Nukaga left the position of subcommittee chairman and became an advisor of the LDP Tax System Research Commission.

"[14][15] In October 2023 Nukaga was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, after Hiroyuki Hosoda resigned for health reasons.