is the current

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese Vice- Minister for Foreign Affairs in charge of administration. Prior to his current position, Yabunaka served as Ministry of Foreign Affair's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Director-General. He has been a diplomat for nearly forty years.Potter (2000).

Diplomacy

Before entering government service, Yabunaka was a senior researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies from 1990-1991. In 1998, Yabunaka became Consul General of Japan in Chicago US, and visited the country on several occasions. Yabunaka has represented Japan on a number of occasions, and has negotiated trade deals with the United States,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. He has had contact with a number of United States diplomats, including hosting current United States Ambassador to Japan

John Roos John Victor Roos (born February 14, 1955) is an American businessman, attorney, and diplomat who served as United States Ambassador to Japan from 2009 to 2013. He is the Founding Partner of Geodesic Capital. Before accepting the ambassadorship f ...

shortly following Roos' appointment. During the first, second, and third rounds of the Six-party talks, Yabunaka represented Japan as chief delegate. The Japanese government also sent Yabanuka as a delegate to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

to discuss issues of natural gas reserves under the

East China Sea The East China Sea is an arm of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. It covers an area of roughly . The sea’s northern extension between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula is the Yellow Sea, separated b ...

. He handled

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

relations during the Kenji Nagai shooting incident, demanding an investigation and challenging governmental claims. Yabunaka replaced

Toshiyuki Takano is a Japanese Ambassador to Germany, previously to South Korea (2002–2005) and Singapore (2001). In February 2005 he sparked a controversy in South Korea when he stated that the Liancourt Rocks in the Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the ...

as Director-General of Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau in 2002. In 2008, Yabunaka held talks with

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

n Ambassador Kwon Chul Hyun over disputed islets in the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

.Xinhua (2008).

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yabunaka, Mitoji Japanese diplomats 1948 births Living people Government ministers of Japan Osaka University alumni Osaka University faculty