Ichirō Hatoyama
In 1954, Nomura ran for the House of Councillors (upper house) and was elected by a landslide. In the late 1950 he was considered to be a strong candidate to head the Defense Agency by two prime ministers, Ichirō Hatoyama and Nobusuke Kishi, however he declined both offers and expressed his belief in civilian control of armed forces. Nomura had been a civilian for nearly two decades by that time, but was still regarded by many as a retired admiral of the old Imperial Japanese Navy.