Executive Director, JIIA Platform
YANAGI Jun
Jun YANAGI graduated from Kanagawa Prefectural Shonan High School in 1985. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA) in 1988 after leaving the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo. He holds a BA and an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from the University of Oxford.
At MOFA Headquarters, he was responsible for a wide range of policy areas, including Asian affairs, APEC, intelligence, public diplomacy, and science and technology diplomacy. Overseas assignments included postings in Nigeria, Australia, Russia, and Canada.
He has served as Director of the Western Europe Division, Professor at Tohoku University (Faculty of Law and Graduate School of Public Policy), Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy in Vietnam and the Permanent Mission to the International Organizations in Vienna, Deputy Director of the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office (CIRO), and Consul-General in Chicago.
Since April 2025, he has been seconded to the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA). He is responsible for managing a privately funded public-private-academic partnership platform, where he engages in the formulation of national grand strategies and the planning and management of a diplomatic academy for the development of global leaders.
Publication:
An Introduction to Diplomacy: Norms and Ways of Thinking in International Society (Jiji Press, 2014).
