 In the 1980s, Nonaka was part of the House faction headed by Noboru Takeshita.He rose to prominence following the Recruit scandal, which led to the collapse of the Takeshita faction, and the 1993 general election, in which the LDP entered the opposition for the first time in decades.As few LDP Diet members had experience being part of the opposition, Nonaka drew on his experience as part of the local and prefectural assembly opposition in Kyoto to become one of the most prominent Diet critics of the Hosokawa government.Following the collapse of the Hosokawa-led coalition in 1994, Nonaka entered the Cabinet for the first time as part of the Murayama government.