May 19, 2005
Minister Junichi Ihara
Economic Minister
Embassy of Japan, Washington, D.C.
Topic: U.S.-Japan Economic Relations
and Community Building in East-Asia.
Minister Junichi Ihara graduated from
Kyoto University with a Bachelor of Law degree in March
1979. He immediately entered the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MOFA) in Tokyo. In June of 1979, he became a
Trainee at the North Asia Division of MOFA. Later in 1980,
he was assigned as Attaché at the Embassy of Japan in
France, and Second Secretary in 1982. Beginning in 1984,
Mr. Ihara served at MOFA, first as Officer of First
Southeast Asia Division, then as Assistant Director of GATT
Division, and in 1989 as Deputy Director of First North
America Division. In 1992, he became the First Secretary at
the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines. In 1994, Minister
Ihara returned to MOFA where he has served as Deputy
Director of Personnel Division; Secretary to Vice-Minister
for Foreign Affairs; Director of WTO Division; Director of
Financial Affairs Division; and Deputy Director-General of
the Office of Inspection, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in
Tokyo. In August of 2004, he became a Fellow, WCFIA, at
Harvard University. Presently, he is the Economic Minister
of the Embassy of Japan in Washington, DC—a position that he
accepted in January 2005.
Minister Junichi Ihara was born on
April 18, 1956. He is married to Mrs. Makiko Ihara and they
have two sons, Takafumi and Akihiko.
