Event Detail

Members of ACCJ-Chubu will have a wonderful opportunity this month to meet Mr. Kurt Tong, the new Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Tokyo, in an informal breakfast at the Hilton on March 21.



Previously the U.S. Ambassador for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), while concurrently serving as the Economic Coordinator for the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Mr. Tong has spent 17 years working and studying in East Asia. He has served at the U.S. Embassies in Manila, Tokyo (1996-1999), Beijing and Seoul, and was Director for Korean Affairs at the Department of State from 2008 to 2009. Prior to that, he served as Director for Asian Economic Affairs at the National Security Council from 2006 to 2008. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Tokyo University Faculty of Economics from 1995 to 1996. Prior to joining the Foreign Service in 1990, Mr. Tong was an Associate with the Boston Consulting Group in Tokyo.



Mr. Tong holds a B.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and studied graduate-level economics at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute. He has also studied at the Beijing Institute of Education, Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies in Taipei, Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Tokyo, and International Christian University in Tokyo. Mr. Tong speaks and reads Japanese and Mandarin Chinese and has published articles in Nihon Keizai Kenkyu (an academic journal of the Japan Center for Economic Research) and in Foreign Policy.



Everyone keeping up with the headlines in this part of the world today concerning economics, politics and foreign policy should find this breakfast a fascinating opportunity.



Appreciation is extended to Harry Sullivan and the American Consulate of Nagoya who have made this event possible.