(April 14th, 2016) The event below will start at 7:30 EDT, April 18. That is a change from April 14 forced by a last-minute urgent meeting between Japanese and Russian diplomatic officials visiting Japan.
Yasuhisa Kawamura, Director-General for Press and Public Diplomacy of the Japanese government, a job that includes being chief spokesman for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will be the featured speaker in a Boston Global Forum (BGF) live online dialogue titled “The Role of Japan in Peace, Security and Development in the World Today.’’ Such a dialogue takes on particular importance now because Japan will host this year’s G7 Summit, to be held on May 26-27.
The event can be seen live at www.bostonglobalforum.org.
Joining Mr. Kawamura in the discussion will be Michael Dukakis, Chairman of the Boston Global Forum’s Board of Directors and Board of Thinkers, and Prof. Thomas Patterson, a member of the BGF Board of Directors and Board of Thinkers; Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and Acting Director of the Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.
The session is one in the series of online dialogues in the Boston Global Forum’s BGF-G7 Summit Initiative, in which BGF experts have been working with Japanese officials to craft proposals to be considered by the national leaders at the summit.
The Boston Global Forum encourages its members and friends to send questions for the discussants to [email protected]. Members of the Boston Global Forum’s Special Editorial Board will gather your questions and insights and send them to the speakers.
The talk and listeners’ responses to it will be live-streamed at www.bostonglobalforum.org
About Mr Yasuhisa Kawamura
Press Secretary
Director-General for Press and Public Diplomacy
1956 Born in Nagoya, Japan
1981 Graduated from Hitotsubashi University (BA of Law)
Joined Ministry of Foreign Affairs(MOFA)
1984 Graduated from Amherst College, MA, USA
Second Secretary, Embassy of Japan to U.S.A.
1988 Deputy Director, Second North America Division, MOFA
1993 Principal Deputy Director, Second Southeast Asia Division, MOFA
1993 First Secretary, Permanent Mission to Int’l Organization in Geneva
1995 Counselor, Embassy of Japan in Indonesia
1998 Director, International Press Division, MOFA
2000 Director, Second International Organization Division, Economic Affairs Bureau, MOFA
2002 Counselor, Permanent Mission of Japan to European Union
2004 Representative in Tokyo, Organization of Economic Development and Cooperation
2008 Deputy Press Secretary (Deputy Director General) for Foreign Minister
2010 Deputy Consul General, Consulate General of Japan in New York
2012 Deputy Chief of Mission, Consulate General of Japan in New York
2013 Minister & Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Japan in India
2015 Press Secretary, Director-General for Press and Public Diplomacy
Married, One Daughter