[1] Tanigaki was prepared for a legal career after close to ten years of study, but his father, who represented the 2nd district in Kyoto, died in 1983.

[citation needed] Tanigaki declared his candidacy for the LDP presidency on July 28, 2006, but came in third place in a three-way race against Shinzō Abe and Tarō Asō.

Tanigaki is affiliated to the openly revisionist lobby Nippon Kaigi, which advocates visits of Prime Ministers to the controversial shrine.

[citation needed] On 24 September 2007, Tanigaki was named chief policymaker of the LDP by newly elected party president Yasuo Fukuda.

[9] In 2012, the LDP under Tanigaki worked with prime minister Yoshihiko Noda of the ruling DPJ to pass an increase in the consumption tax from the current 5% to 8% in April 2014 and 10% in October 2015.

[12] Tanigaki had expected to be re-elected as LDP head unopposed in 2012, but former Prime Minister Shinzō Abe and several others suggested that they could run against him.

[18] He stayed out of the public eye during his hospitalization, and was rumored to be planning a comeback to politics as of mid-2017,[19] but decided not to run in the 2017 general election due to his physical condition.