Koji Tomita

Koji Tomita’s first experience of the United States came as an exchange student aged nineteen at Davidson College in 1977. He later graduated in law from the University of Tokyo and entered the Foreign Ministry in 1981. His diplomatic career included assignments in London and Paris, ambassadorships in Israel and South Korea, and service as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s personal representative for the Osaka G20 summit. ^{1, 2}

Tomita specialized in security policy and the American alliance. Before becoming ambassador, he served as deputy chief of mission in Washington and director-general of the North American Affairs Bureau. In the latter part of that career he helped prepare Abe’s 2015 official visit to the United States and worked on Japan’s peace and security legislation. President Joe Biden received his credentials as ambassador on February 17, 2021. Tomita returned to Davidson in March 2023, answering students’ questions about diplomacy and tensions in the Indo-Pacific. ^{1, 2}

Alongside diplomacy, Tomita wrote biographies of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher in Japanese. His Thatcher book won the Yamamoto Shichihei Award. ¹