Current Japanese foreign policy will be discussed at a free public lecture at The University of Queensland on Monday, July 30.
President of The Japan Institute of International Affairs His Excellency Ambassador Hisashi Owada will give the lecture at Mayne Hall foyer, University Drive, St Lucia at 5.30pm.
The lecture, entitled Current Challenges to Japan's Foreign Policy in the Region, is sponsored by The University of Queensland in association with The Consulate-General of Japan (Queensland).
Professor Owada, of Waseda University Graduate School of Asia and Pacific Studies, was formerly Japanese Ambassador to the United Nations and Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Professor Owada is a graduate of the University of Tokyo. He joined the Foreign Ministry and served in various posts in the foreign service of Japan, spending a large part of his career on legal as well as United Nations affairs, and on relations with the United States and the former Soviet Union. He was private secretary to the Foreign Minister and then to the Prime Minister of Japan.
His professional career in the foreign service of Japan included posts as Director-General of the Treaties Bureau (Principal Legal Adviser), Deputy Minister of the Ministry, and finally Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan.
As Ambassador, he was Permanent Representative of Japan to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (1988-89) and to the United Nations (1994-98). He is also Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan and Senior Adviser to the President of the World Bank. He assumed his current post at The Japan Institute of International Affairs in March 1999.
Professor Owada has also been active in the academic world. He taught at Tokyo University for more than 25 years, and has often been visiting Professor at Harvard University (1979-81, 1987, 1989 and since 2000.) He has been Adjunct Professor of International Law at Columbia Law School (1994-96) and is on the faculty of New York University Law School, (since 1994). He is currently Professor of International Law and Organization at Waseda University Graduate School of Asia and Pacific Studies.
Professor Owada is also an "associe l'Institut de Droit International". He is the author of numerous books and articles on international legal, economic and political issues, including Japanese Practice in the Field of International Law (1984), From Involvement to Engagement - New Foreign Policy Directions of Japan (1994) and Diplomacy (1996).
Executive Dean of UQ's Faculty of Arts Professor Alan Rix will chair the lecture.
For further information, contact Mrs Carol Button, Faculty of Arts telephone: (07) 3365 1822 Fax: (07) 3365 1591 Email: c.button@mailbox.uq.edu.au
Media: For further information contact Professor Alan Rix, telephone 078 3365 1822 or Jan King at UQ Communications 0413 601 248.
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