Yabunaka Mitoji

Plenary Session 4 - "North Korea’s Nuclear Threat"

 

Prof. Yabunaka Mitoji is a professor at Osaka University and the former Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan. During his 41-year diplomatic career, one of his major appointments was as Director General of the Asia Pacific Bureau in 2002. In this capacity, he served as the Chief Representative of the Japanese Government to the Six-Party Talks on North Korea and visited the country three times in 2004. He became Deputy Foreign Minister and served as Sherpa for the G7 Summit Meeting in 2005. In 2008, he was then appointed Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, the top civil servant position in the Foreign Ministry. After retiring from the Ministry in 2010, he began teaching at Osaka University. He also established his own academy 10 years ago and has been nurturing young people to become global players. He has written several books, including Destiny of a Nation (Shinchosha, 2010), and his memoir 40 Years of Diplomatic Negotiation History (Minerva Shobo, 2021).