Biography
Mr Ishigaki is the Minister of Congressional Affairs at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, assuming the post in July 2021. This is his third assignment in the US as he has previously served in the Embassy (1997-1999) and the Japanese Mission to the UN in New York (2010-2013).
Since joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1994, he has covered a wide variety of bilateral and multilateral diplomacy including international trade, treaty negotiations at the United Nations, management of the Japan-US Alliance, humanitarian assistance and climate change talks.
Between 2018 and 2020, he served as the Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Public Affairs at the Prime Minister’s Office where he was in charge of international media relations and public diplomacy. In his most recent position as Director of the Economic Policy Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, he oversaw Japan’s economic diplomacy which included attending G7 and G20 leaders’ meetings and addressing trade and investment issues at WTO and other forums.
He is a graduate of Amherst College and studied law at the University of Tokyo before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He also lectured at the Department of Law at Keio University between 2007 and 2018. Additionally, he has taught International Relations at the University of Tokyo as well as International Environmental Law at the Graduate School of Law at Kyushu University.
Throughout his career, he has published a number of academic papers and contributed to books in the fields of international law, disarmament affairs, trade, and climate change policy.