A member of the Liberal Democratic Party, he also serves in the House of Representatives and was Special Advisor to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida from December 2021 to August 2022.

Terada's wife Keiko is a granddaughter of Hayato Ikeda, former Prime minister of Japan.

He was elected for the first time in 2004, when he left the ministry after the death of his uncle and former Foreign Minister Yukihiko Ikeda.

Terada also served as Secretary at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C., Senior Vice Minister of Cabinet Office, and Senior Vice Minister for Reconstruction[1] Affiliated to the openly revisionist lobby Nippon Kaigi, which advocates a return to militarism in Japan,[2] Terada is in favor of allowing collective self-defense.

[3] On November 20, 2022, Terada was sacked from his position as the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications after a magazine alleging him of misusing political funds, prompting calls for his resignation from opposition parties who saw him as unfit to supervise election-related laws.