Setsuzō Sawada (澤田節蔵, September 9, 1884 - July 4, 1976) was a Japanese diplomat.

Early life

Born in

Tottori Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Tottori Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, least populous prefecture of Japan at 538,525 (2023) and has a geographic area of . ...

in what is now the town of Iwami, he graduated from the law faculty of the University of Tokyo and joined the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

Diplomatic career

He served in several key posts including Consul-General in New York (1929–30), Delegate to the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

(1930–32), and Ambassador to Brazil (1934–38). As a pacifist, he opposed Japan's 1933 withdrawal from the League of Nations, and as a Roman Catholic, he made appeals to the Vatican in order to put an early end to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He served as an advisor to the cabinet of Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki late in the war. In the wake of the war he was regarded, along with fellow veteran diplomat Naotake Sato, as one of the remaining elder statesmen of his generation.

Later carer

He established

Nippon Cultural Broadcasting is a Japanese radio station in Tokyo which broadcasts to the Kanto area. It is one of the two flagship radio stations of National Radio Network (NRN) (the other station is ) and is a member of the Fujisankei Communications Group. History The ...

and served as its chairman. He served as the first president of the

Tokyo University of Foreign Studies , often referred to as TUFS, is a specialist National university, national research university in Fuchū, Tokyo, Fuchū, Tokyo, Japan. TUFS is primarily devoted to foreign language, international relations, international affairs and area studies. ...

from 1949 to 1955.

Family

One of his brothers served as Permanent Representative to the United Nations and was married to social worker Miki Sawada, while another brother was an industrialist.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sawada, Setsuzo 1884 births 1976 deaths 20th-century Japanese businesspeople University of Tokyo alumni People from Tottori Prefecture Permanent representatives of Japan to the League of Nations Ambassadors of Japan to Brazil Consuls-general for Japan in New York City