Born in Chiba (Japan) on February 9, 1992, Nakagami joined the Japanese Road Race Championship in the GP125 category in 2005 and in 2006 became the youngest ever winner of the Japanese 125cc Championship. The same year he also joined the MotoGP Academy which gave him the chance to compete overseas for the first time in the CEV (Spanish) 125GP series. In 2007 he decided to focus on the CEV 125GP championship (under the Academy banner) and had the chance to compete as a wildcard in 125cc World Championship at the final round in Valencia.
He impressed enough to secure a full-time ride in the 125cc World Championship in 2008, joining the Italian I.C. Team riding an Aprilia and he continued in the Championship in 2009 with Ongetta I.S.P.A. Aprilia. Despite having offers to remain in the 125cc championship in 2010, Nakagami decided to return to Japan and re-join the Harc-Pro team (with Honda) for 2 years winning the Japanese Moto2™ title in 2011 was drafted in by the Italtrans Team at the Japan GP as a substitute rider.
The team offered him a fulltime seat for 2012, and in 2013 just missed out on a maiden race victory on numerous occasions – not least when he scored four consecutive second place finishes in the middle of the season. He switched to Idemitsu Honda Team Asia in 2014, but he had to wait until the following year to return to the podium with third in Misano. He remained with the team in 2016 and took his first win in Assen at the Dutch GP, and by the end of 2017 had garnered eight podiums and two poles.
For 2018 Nakagami graduated to the premier class to ride with LCR Honda IDEMITSU and was the best qualifying rookie with several appearances in Q2. Nakagami got his best result at the last round in Valencia crossing the line in 6th position (Best Independent Rider of the Spanish round) and was impressive in winter testing.
He stayed with LCR Honda IDEMITSU in 2019 alongside his team-mate Cal Crutchlow, noticing the best finish of 5th in the Italian GP (Best Independent Rider of the round in Mugello). Unfortunately, his season saw an early end as he had to take a difficult decision to undergo shoulder surgery right after his home GP in Motegi, just to be sure he is fully fit for the upcoming 2020 season.
Nakagami showed great consistency in 2020 and made important progress. He achieved his first ever pole position in MotoGP at Aragon and he finished the Championship, 10th overall. In 2021 Taka shared box with Alex Marquez and repeated teammate for 2022. That season was a tough one as he suffered a serious injury on his right hand. After a tough 2023 season marked by several ups and downs, Nakagami is ready to fight for the best results in 2024.
