Junichi Ihara

He previously served as Ambassador to France and as Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Geneva.

During that period he once accompanied Crown Prince Akihito as an interpreter during a tour of African states for a week.

After returning to Japan, he served as secretary to the Administrative Vice Minister and was involved in the response to the Japanese embassy hostage crisis in 1996.

Later he was successively in charge of GATT and WTO, served as minister to the Embassy in the United States and handled response to the North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens.

[3][5] In December 2019, Ihara was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to France.