Hersey Kyota (born May 1, 1953) is a Palauan politician and diplomat who has served as the ambassador of Palau to the United States since 1997. He is the current

dean of the Diplomatic Corps The diplomatic corps (french: corps diplomatique) is the collective body of foreign diplomats accredited to a particular country or body. The diplomatic corps may, in certain contexts, refer to the collection of accredited heads of mission (amb ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, as the longest-serving ambassador to the United States. Prior to his appointment as ambassador, Kyota was the chief clerk for the House of Delegates in the Palau National Congress, and director of the House Legal Counsels' Office in Palau. From 1990 to 1996, he served a senator in the Palau National Congress, and sat on the Board of Directors for the Association of Pacific Island Legislatures from 1992 to 1996. He has occasionally represented Palau in the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

. Kyota received his bachelor's degree and master of arts degree from International University in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

. He is married and has five children.

Political career

From 1981 to 1984, Hersey Kyota was legal researcher for the House of Delegates in the Palau National Congress. He was then chief clerk for the House of Delegates from 1985 to 1988. From 1989 to 1990, he was the director of the House Legal Counsels’ Office. From 1990 to 1996, he served as a senator in the Palau National Congress and for the Board of Directors for the Association of Pacific Island Legislatures from 1992 to 1996. Finally, he became the Palau ambassador to the United States on November 12, 1997. In 2000, Kyota was chairman of the Palau Delegation to the

during the Millennium Summit. In his speech, he emphasized the need for equal and substantial participation from all member states in UN-related activities. He also spoke in front of the

United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources The United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources is a standing committee of the United States Senate. It has jurisdiction over matters related to energy and mineral resources, including nuclear development; irrigation and recla ...

regarding many issues between American-Palau relations, including education grants and the transmission of videotape programming. As the longest serving ambassador to the United States he also holds the position of

Dean of the Diplomatic Corps The diplomatic corps (french: corps diplomatique) is the collective body of foreign diplomats accredited to a particular country or body. The diplomatic corps may, in certain contexts, refer to the collection of accredited heads of mission (amb ...

. In this position he is the most senior diplomat to the United States and therefore entitled to special privileges under the Vienna Convention such as attendance at the

State of the Union The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning of each calendar year on the current conditio ...

address each year.

Education and personal life

Hersey Kyota earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in 1977 and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in 1979 from the United States International University in San Diego. Kyota is the son of Shiro Kyota, who served as a finance officer before he became the speaker of Palau's National Congress. Shiro Kyota of half-Japanese heritage, being the son of a Palau-based Japanese trader and his Palauan wife.Deimel (2007), p. 225 Kyota is married and has six children and enjoys several hobbies, including

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

, playing

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

and

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

References

Bibliography

* Deimel, Claus, ''Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Ethnographischen Sammlungen Sachsen. Band 43'', LIT Verlag Berlin-Hamburg-Münster, 2007,

External links

''The Washington Diplomat'' Ambassador Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kyota, Hersey Living people 1953 births Ambassadors of Palau to the United States Members of the Senate of Palau Palauan politicians of Japanese descent University of California, San Diego alumni Deans of the Diplomatic Corps to the United States

Political career

Education and personal life

See also

References

Bibliography

External links