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Ambassador Shigeo Yamada of Japan will visit the Reischauer Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies to give his first major policy address since Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s recent summit with President Joe Biden, titled “The Japan-US Relationship: Global Partners for the Future.”

For all inquiries, please email [email protected].

Speaker biography:

Ambassador Shigeo Yamada assumed his post as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the U.S. in December 2023.

Ambassador Yamada is a longtime veteran of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His very first posting was as a second secretary in Washington, D.C., in 1989. In 2012, he returned to Washington as political minister. Prior to assuming his current post, Ambassador Yamada served as senior deputy minister for foreign affairs. In that capacity, he was political director for Japan’s 2023 G7 presidency, supporting the G7 Summit in Hiroshima and the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Nagano-Karuizawa.

Ambassador Yamada’s previous positions in Tokyo include deputy minister for foreign affairs for foreign policy, deputy director general for North American affairs, director for Northeast Asia, director for Southeast Asia, and director for the status of U.S. forces agreement. He also served as a cabinet councilor in the National Security Secretariat in the Prime Minister’s Office. In addition to his postings in Washington and Tokyo, over the course of his career he has been in charge of the public and culture affairs at the embassies of Japan in London and Beijing.

The ambassador’s broad diplomatic assignments have led him to the realization that “the Japan-U.S. alliance is no longer just a bilateral relationship, but a global partnership.” It is this conviction that informs his perspective as Japan’s ambassador to the U.S.

Ambassador Yamada earned a Bachelor of Arts in law from Keio University in 1987 and a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Carleton College in Minnesota in 1989. He is married to Maki Yamada, who is currently a judge in Japan. Ambassador Yamada enjoys outdoor activities and is an avid runner.

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