Minister Hideki Asari took over as Director of the Japan Information and Cultural Centre (JICC) in September 2013. It is his second posting to the UK as he was here 22 years ago, shortly after entering the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We spoke to him about his life, career and aspirations for his new posting.

Initial remarks

It is my pleasure to be in London again and to work with the people in the United Kingdom. I was here 22 years ago as one of the youngest members of the Embassy, dealing with political affairs. Now I am back, this time in charge of public diplomacy and the media as Director of the Japan Information and Cultural Centre.

The world has gone through a sea change since I left this city in the summer of 1991. When I was here last time, there was a country called the Soviet Union, Germany had just been reunited, there was no internet, and for many people in the UK Japan was still far away. Now the world landscape has drastically changed, the internet has connected people around the world, including those in the UK and Japan, and an acceleration of globalisation has made the world much smaller.

On the other hand, I note that many nice things are just as they were when I left here 22 years ago. London is both exciting and charming, a city blessed with a unique culture, both classical and modern, and with plenty of natural beauty in terms of its parks and woodland. Of course, the weather has not changed either, and I have barely seen the sun since I arrived here two weeks ago. While many foreigners may find such weather rather discouraging, I find it soothing.

More important still, it is the kindness and warmth of the people that I have found unchanged. I appreciate the generous support and encouragement given by the citizens of the UK at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. As for more recent events, I thank the people of this country for the warm support and good wishes they extended to Japan regarding its bid to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympics Games - which was, as you know, successful. There is much that Japan can learn from the success of London 2012, and cooperation between our two countries can contribute to making Tokyo 2020 equally memorable.

Meanwhile, I would like the people in the UK to know more about Japan, both its traditional charm and its modern coolness, and the role Japan is playing in international affairs. I am looking forward to working with you.

Which part of Japan are you from and where did you spend your formative years?

I’m from Tokyo and I spent most of my formative time in Tokyo and its vicinity, except some years in Hokkaido, when I was very, very young. When I was in high school in Japan, I stayed near Los Angeles for one year as a high school exchange student. The town I stayed in was Huntington Beach, a suburb of Los Angeles. Then I came back to Japan, attended university, and after joining the foreign service the first foreign country I went to was this country. I spent a total of four years here – two in Oxford and two in London.

Why did you decide to join the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?

Well, I found the work of diplomats very attractive in that it directly deals with the making of history, even if only in a very small way. Diplomats involve themselves with the interaction or dealings between countries in the international system. Diplomatic negotiations and the ensuing treaties and architectures which are brought forth as a result of those negotiations form parts of history. This I found very exciting.  For example, I was involved in the trade negotiations known as the Uruguay Round, which were a very historic set of negotiations in that they transformed the multilateral trade system and expanded its scope. I was lucky enough to be a part of the Japanese negotiating team at the conclusion of those negotiations. That’s just one of the examples. But I think the job of a diplomat directly deals with making history.

You have clearly had many interesting postings during your career.  Could you tell us about some experiences that have made a particular impression on you?

My four years in Britain from 1987 to 1991 certainly impressed me very strongly as the formative period of my career.  I met many fine diplomats, both from Britain and from Japan, and learning from those people really helped create a kind of backbone for me as a diplomat.  So the four years here - in Oxford and London - really made an impact on me. That was also a very memorable time in other respects, especially for someone stationed here in London. It was when the upheaval in the East European countries and the reunification process of Germany started. When I arrived in this country in 1987, nobody believed Germany would be reunited for the foreseeable future. But seeing the development of history, I learned that once something got momentum, history could move more quickly than anybody had anticipated. That’s one episode which really struck me.

I have also encountered many fascinating things as I have been lucky enough to experience a variety of interesting positions during my career. The Uruguay Round negotiations I just mentioned were one of them. Later I was posted to Seoul at the time of the World Cup co-hosted by Japan and South Korea in 2002. South Korea is our next-door neighbour and a very important country for Japan in various respects. I still have many good Korean friends.

Afterwards I was involved again in trade negotiations, this time towards a free-trade agreement with the South East Asian countries. And later I dealt with our relations with Australia, New Zealand and other Oceanian countries. That was in 2007, when Prime Minister Abe and Australian Prime Minister Howard signed a security cooperation declaration between the two countries and agreed to start the 2 + 2 foreign and defence ministers’ meetings. This was our first 2 + 2 arrangement aside from that with our ally, the United States.

Another impressive time was the two years I spent in the Prime Minister’s Office from 2007 to 2009. For that posting my boss was Ambassador Hayashi! He was the Prime Minister’s diplomatic adviser and I was his assistant, based in the very building where the Prime Minister works and makes important decisions. These two exciting years were followed by two equally exciting years in Washington D.C., where I worked with the people in the Executive branch and on Capitol Hill. That was also where I met many good friends in the think tanks which play a unique role in the policy-making process in the United States. This experience helped me a great deal when I had the chance to run a think tank in Japan, called the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), after I returned to Tokyo in the summer of 2011. I was on loan from the foreign service during this time at JIIA, which lasted until this summer.

All in all, these experiences have left a strong impression on me in one way or another but, as I said at the beginning, my four years in this country really helped to create my backbone as a diplomat.

What do you hope to achieve during your time in London?

First and foremost, I want to “promote” Japan in various respects, not only in terms of its traditional attractions and its modern appeal but also in helping our friends in the UK understand Japan’s role in international affairs and the various chances for cooperation that exist between the two countries. For some time in the past, Japan seems to have been off the radar screen, maybe because of the so-called ‘lost decade’ or ‘lost two decades’, which is a very striking contrast to how Japan was perceived when I was first in this country. However, “Japan is back!” I think more and more people are again interested in Japan, which is a very good thing. And I would like to help our friends in the UK to become more familiar with Japan, to know more about Japan. I feel that kind of interaction and understanding is a prerequisite for stronger Japan-UK cooperation. In fact, the UK and Japan have a long history of exchange and cooperation. This year marks the 400th anniversary of the first interaction between the two countries marked by an exchange of letters between King James I and Ieyasu Tokugawa, the first Shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate which ruled Japan at the time, and also the 150th anniversary of the arrival in the UK of the “Choshu Five”, five young samurai who studied in this country and later played pivotal roles in building modern Japan. And, looking into the future, I think the UK and Japan can cooperate for the success of the Olympics in 2020 in Tokyo. There is much that Japan can learn from the triumph of London 2012.

How do you spend your free time?  What would you like to do or see (outside work) while you are in the UK?

As I might have hinted, I like history and aspire to being an amateur historian. Of course, such people never get bored in Britain as there are so many things to see! When I first came to this country, between the end of summer school and the beginning of Oxford I travelled on my own, using my half-reliable, half-unreliable car, starting from Buckinghamshire, where I was staying over summer. I first went to Stratford, then all the way up to the Lake District, Carlisle and Hadrian’s Wall, and on to Edinburgh and round Scotland, including the Isle of Skye, then came back. That trip took about two weeks.

I don’t know if I can make that kind of arduous journey again now, but there are still many places I haven’t visited in this country. For instance, I haven’t been to Wales or Northern Ireland, which is rather a pity, so I’m looking forward to putting that right.

JICC