Event Detail

Interested in hearing about the new Japanese government administration? Please join the ACCJ Chubu to hear from the U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission, Kurt Tong, about the outlook for U.S.-Japan relations with the new Abe Administration. Think of Mr. Tong as the "Chief Operating Officer" of the Embassy with his hands on the pulse of the entire mission. He knows the entire range of the economic, political, commercial, and other issues that are being discussed between the two sides. How are both sides looking at the TPP? What are the prospects for getting Hague Convention legislation passed with the new administration? And what's the latest update on the military bases in Okinawa and the Osprey? Why is the Ambassador going on an "Ambassadorial Outreach Tour" to the Western United States, meeting with some prominent U.S. companies there, and what does he hope to accomplish? The ACCJ's Aerospace Industry, External Affairs and Business Programs Committees will sponsor a lunchtime meeting with Mr. Tong at the Hilton in the Chikuen Room.

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. 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.

Click on the link below to see Mr. Tong's biography.

http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/info/tinfo-dcmbio.html