Career
A native of Mutsu, Aomori and graduate of Hirosaki Gakuin University she ran for the Diet for the first time in 2000 after serving three terms in the city assembly of Nemuro, Hokkaido since 1989. In the 2009 general election, Nakano was the only Democratic incumbent countrywide to lose her district seat to a Liberal Democrat. As the only losing Democratic district candidate in Hokkaidō though, she was safely reelected via the proportional representation block.
