Interview with Jun Yanagi, New Consul General of Japan in Chicago
Jun Yanagi, Consul General of Japan in Chicago
New Consul General Jun Yanagi arrived in Chicago on August 22, and the Chicago Shimpo interviewed him on September 5 at his official residence.
Consul General Yanagi was born in December 1966, in Tochigi Prefecture.
In 1985, he entered the Tokyo University and majored in the Faculty of Law and then joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in 1988.
Taking advantage of the Ministry’s training program in 1989, he studied at Oxford University, reading PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) and obtained a bachelor’s and a master's degree.
He has worked in Japanese Embassies in several countries, Permanent Mission of Japan in Vienna, taken many roles in the Ministry, and was invited as a professor by the Tohoku University from 2012 to 2014, and then he authored and published his book in 2014 about the introductory guide on diplomacy: international protocol and thoughts.
Q: Could you tell us what factors moved you to become a diplomat?
Yanagi: It was in my sophomore year at high school that I vaguely thought about working in the United Nations, so I changed my course of studies to liberal arts from math and science. When I was a university freshman and sophomore, I traveled to Europe and China as a backpacker. During those trips, I was more inspired to see the world and wished to work in the international society.
Q: Why did you major in the Faculty of Law at Tokyo University?
Yanagi: At that time in Japan, people generally thought that you would have a wider choice of career after you study law. I myself wasn’t seeking the legal profession.
Q: Could you tell us about the days in Oxford?
Yanagi: I studied in Oxford for 3 years from 1989 to 1992.
The University had a tutorial system that allowed a student to have a face-to-face session with his tutor every week. For this one-hour-session, my tutor gave me homework to read 10 books. I had to analyze them and write ten-page long critics of those books, and then have a debate with the tutor during the session. Since I had two subjects, usually there were two tutorials a week, so I had to do this assignment twice a week.
I remember it was hard, especially because English is not my mother tongue. Though, I was able to obtain the skills to develop logic and speak out my opinions critically about a certain subject through the tutorial sessions.
Q: Studying philosophy seems to be tough. How did you do that?
Yanagi: I often read assigned books authored by philosophers such as David Hume and John Stuart Mill when I was in my first year.
Q: After graduated from Oxford, you were assigned to the Embassy of Japan in Nigeria as First Secretary in July 1992. How was your first job as a diplomat?
Yanagi: In Nigeria, the capital city Lagos was an exciting urban city in many ways. It was a small embassy, so I could experience many jobs in the embassy such as relationships with Japanese companies, security and protection for Japanese nationals, information gathering and analysis on military coups or Presidential elections, general affairs, and so on.
During my mission at the embassy, the Ambassador’s car was shot by armed holdups. Fortunately, the Ambassador had no injury, but the car got holes. Also, there was an unfortunate incident that my colleague diplomat from the United Kingdom lost his life caused to malaria.
Although I encountered dangers, it was a good experience for me working in a developing country when I was young.
Q: You returned to the Foreign Ministry in 1994, and then you were assigned to work in embassies:
. 2001 – 2004, First Secretary at Embassy of Japan in Australia
. 2004 – 2005, Counselor at Embassy of Japan in Russia
. 2005 – 2008, Counselor at Embassy of Japan in Canada
. 2014 – 2018, Minister, Deputy Chief of Mission at Embassy of Japan in Vietnam
Could you tell us about your impressions on those countries?
Yanagi: In Australia, Japan’s presence had been already strong in the country, and I was able to make acquaintance with many people.
You may know about a book “The Tyranny of Distance” authored by Geoffrey Blainey. As the author had described the situation in Australia, I felt that the country prefers neighboring countries such as Japan and Asian countries to distant countries like the U.K. and the U.S.
In Moscow, I oversaw Russia’s foreign policy such as Russia-U.S. relations, Russia-China relations, Russia’s relationship with vicinal countries and Middle Eastern countries. I also worked for UN Security Council Reform Affairs.
While I was working in Russia, I found that it was not easy to grasp what was going on in Kremlin. Personally, I had a favorable impression on the Russian people, so I lament over today’s Russia’s situation with Ukraine.
At Canada’s capital Ottawa, I thought that Canadians had a prominent interest in the U.S., although I felt that they had interests in Asia at Vancouver on the west coast.
Former Canadian President Pierre Elliott Trudeau said that living next to the U.S. was like sleeping with an elephant; his enormous bulk meant that Canada was affected by every twitch and grunt. His words were interpreted as, “Anyhow Canada has to get along with the elephant, even if the beast is friendly or tempered.” I learned about lessons and feelers on Japan-U.S. diplomacy management.
Vietnam and Japan have developed close relationship, and I felt strong energy in the country. It is a country of socialism and enacted by the Communist Party; however, I sensed that Vietnam is considerably different from Russia. Exchanges between Japan and Vietnam are very active, and many Japanese people from a wide range of fields visited the country. I spent three and a half years of fulfilling time in Vietnam.
The people in those four countries were very kind and friendly. I really liked them.
Q: In 2008, you became Director of the International Science Cooperation Division in the Foreign Ministry. During your tenure, you had discussions with the staff of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. You also spoke about the necessity of diplomacy on science and technology at the Royal Society in England. Through those interactions with professionals, you organized national science-technology diplomacy into three pillars. Could you talk about it?
Yanagi: In the contemporary world, we need to integrate diplomacy and science to solve many international issues.
The first pillar is “Diplomacy for Science and Technology.” One side of science is global competition on such issues as recruitment of human resources. Another side of science is cooperation for global-based projects such as the International Space Station, and diplomacy is needed to establish frameworks for global consensus.
Second is “Science and Technology for Diplomacy.” We need science and technology to solve global issues such as climate change, disaster prevention, and infectious disease. At the same time, science can be seen as a source of Japan’s strength, contribution to international society, and Japan’s soft power.
Third is “Diplomacy Based on Scientific Evidence.” Regarding proven scientific evidence on global warming, safety of food, and treated water, Japan should assert that Japan’s position is scientifically correct. That insistence with scientific evidence has persuasive power to the international community.
I was working on the intersection between science and diplomacy at the International Science Cooperation Division.
Q: You were invited by the Tohoku University as a professor. Was the invitation to teach students about diplomacy for the future? You also authored and published a book about the introductory guide on diplomacy: international protocols and thoughts. Could you tell us about the book?
Yanagi: The Graduate School of Public Policy at Tohoku University has a one-year group study program, kind of workshop style, so the school invites a few bureaucrats from Kasumigaseki as a practical professor to coach the group study. I had been working as a diplomat for a quarter century, so that I had seen the change of Japan’s position in the international society. Based on my experience, I believe that Japan’s future would depend on young human resources, and giving education to young people would be important for Japan’s future prosperity and security. So, the University’s offer was a good opportunity for me.
As you may know, teaching is not an easy job, I needed more than 10 hours of preparation time before I taught a 90-minute class.
Regarding my book, I wrote it based on my lectures and conversations with the students. I wanted to write about the logic of diplomacy and practice in a comprehensible way to give readers clues to understand a way of looking and a way of thinking rather than just giving them knowledge.
My students were great teachers to me. Through the conversations with them, I was able to clarify my vague thoughts into a specific form of written language.
Q: Were the students thinking of becoming a diplomat?
Yanagi: A few might be, but basically most students were thinking of their career in various fields. Especially, undergraduates were thinking of their future locally to do something good for their hometown. They were all bright students. I think they are actively working for their hometown now.
Q: You worked as Minister in the Permanent Mission of Japan in Vienna where many kinds of negotiations are ongoing. Could you tell us about your experience there?
Yanagi: There are a variety of international organizations in Vienna and various negotiations are ongoing. Those negotiations are multilateral diplomacy, and I felt that multilateral diplomacy required different ways of thinking and manners compared with bilateral diplomacy.
In bilateral diplomacy, showing your good faith and fulfilling a promise are top priorities, but they are not always honored in multilateral diplomacy. It was a world where no country could take complete control on negotiation processes and outcomes, which Japan and the U.S. are no exceptions.
Q: You were Deputy Director at the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office (CIRO) from 2021 to 2023, just before you came to Chicago. I think CIRO is close to the Cabinet. Could you tell us your experience?
Yanagi: I worked as 2nd in command in CIRO. The primary role of CIRO is to support the Cabinet with intelligence. CIRO also has a coordinating role among many intelligence-related agencies. Through further enhancement on political, diplomatic and security relationships between Japan and the U.S., CIRO must strengthen their intelligence function to support the Cabinet and provide high-added-value information based on analytic evaluation in a timely manner.
Q: Let me go back to 1994. You returned to Tokyo from Nigeria and worked for many diplomatic jobs until 2001, including Southeast Asia Division, APEC, Intelligence, and Public Diplomacy Division.
As the Consul General of Japan, I think you will work on Public Diplomacy in the Chicago area and Midwest. Could you tell us about your plans?
Yanagi: At that time, the word public diplomacy wasn’t common, but what I worked on was cultural exchanges, sports exchanges, and other exchanges among JET (The Japan Exchange and Teaching Program) participants and foreign exchange students. I was in the Foreign Ministry’s office for seven years and worked in the Public Diplomacy Division for two years.
Generally, public diplomacy is to act on public opinion and citizens of a partner country rather than doing direct diplomacy between the two central governments. Usually, despite the change of the government, public diplomacy remains the same, but I feel, with the development of technology, especially development in social media, public diplomacy has been changing.
A major pillar of the Consulate General of Japan in Chicago is to have more American citizens becoming a fan of Japan, having a further understanding of Japan and becoming a supporter of Japan as well as supporting Japanese community.
I think diplomacy is not only abstract relationship between governments but tangible relationship between the people of the two countries. There is no magic wand. I’m going to meet American people as much as possible in the 10 states under our jurisdiction and want to understand further of the people in the Midwest through direct conversations and exchanges of culture and economics. And then I want Midwesterners to understand more about Japan and want to contribute to further the Japan-U.S. relationship from this land of the Midwest.
Since the Consulate General’s office has a limited number of staff and time, I want to collaborate with Japanese, Japanese Americans, honorary consuls, and many organizations and individuals to deepen the Japan-U.S. relationship and take a role of connecting people.
Q: Could you tell us some of your heart-warming stories in your life?
Yanagi: The first one is about JET program. Over 20 years ago, JET Do-so-kai (alumni reunion) was only held in North America. So, I planned to host a JET Do-so-kai in Japan where JET alumni from all over the world were able to join. I was very delighted that a JET Do-so-kai really came true. In Chicago, I’m very impressed that JET alumni have become a bridge between Japan and the U.S. and actively working together. I’m very happy to see them.
The second one is when I had opportunities to prepare imperial family’s foreign visits for international friendship and goodwill, and they were rare opportunities for me to experience and learn about various things.
In 2002, then crown prince and princess visited Australia. In 2012, then Emperor and Empress visited the United Kingdom to attend the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. In 2017, then Emperor and Empress visited Vietnam. When crown prince and princess departed from the airport, Australian Prime Minister John Winston Howard came to send off the couple and kept standing at the airport until the airplane became invisible. In Vietnam, imperial couple had a meeting with families of former Japanese soldiers who remained in the country after World War II. There were many heart-warming scenes. Preparing imperial family’s trip was one of the most memorable jobs I ever had.
Q: Have you had any moment to feel that you had the right choice to become a diplomat? As a diplomat, do you feel heavy pressure on your job?
Yanagi: The good things are meeting many people, who have different backgrounds, and working with them, having discussions with them, having negotiations with them, and seeing many places in different countries.
Regarding pressure, I think that I’m just a public servant, so it is the same as anybody who works abroad under a certain amount of pressure.
Q: Could you tell us your impressions of Chicago?
Yanagi: I haven’t explored the city of Chicago, but I’m pleased to live in a big urban city with a huge lake that looks like an ocean and work in the Midwest.
I just walked around Evanston and campus of the Northwestern University. I also visited the Japan Festival in St. Louis. Since my arrival, I have been amazed at the big size of everything from town, streets, houses, to food and goods in supermarkets, and I am beginning to feel the generosity and kindness of the people. I look forward to meeting people and enjoying Midwest Nice.
Q: Last but not least, please tell us your hobbies or interests.
Yanagi: If I had the talent, I wished to be an architect or a golfer. So, in my leisure time, I want to put myself in architecture from modern buildings to houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and enjoy the space of the architecture.
If there is no official engagement or work during the weekend, I want to share good times with many American people and Japanese people on golf courses.
I have lived in many places, so I developed a habit of enjoying local specialties on the weekend. I enjoyed playing golf in Canberra, watching ballet in Moscow, and enjoying opera and music in Vienna. I will try to find and see unique things and places in Chicago and the Midwest.
Q: Thank you very much.