H.E. Akihiko Furuya

Japanese Ambassador to South Africa

Date of Birth: 05/10/1946

As Japan’s ‘Year of Africa – 2008’ picks up speed, Tokyo’s Ambassador to Tshwane, Akihiko Furuya, will be one of Japan’s main voices in Africa. Furuya has the difficult job of promoting Japanese cooperation efforts in Africa without appearing to be in competition with China and India, the other mega-economies courting Africa. Furuya plays down rivalry between Japan and China in line with his Premier Yasuo Fukuda’s recent attempts to improve Sino-Japanese relations during meetings with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao and Chinese President Hu Jintao in December. Far from competing for influence, Furuya argues, Japan and China should share their development experiences with Africa.

Yet Japan’s Africa strategy, scaled back from its flowering in the mid-1990s, is much closer to that of the European Union. Tokyo uses British institutions such as Crown Agents to disburse aid. Tokyo also wants African backing for a Japanese seat on the United Nations Security Council. Treading such a delicate line will come naturally to a skilled diplomat like Furuya.

Born in 1946, Furuya studied law at Tokyo University and entered the diplomatic service in 1970. By 1985, he was Director of the Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau. His first international posting was to the Philippines, followed by stints at embassies in France and Vietnam. His return home in 1995 found him serving as Deputy Director-General of Global Issues in the Foreign Policy Bureau. By 1997, he was Japan’s Minister to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. In 2000-2002, he served as Ambassador to Senegal, Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mali and Mauritania. After that, he was an Executive Director of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the state development bank. In 2006, he took up his latest ambassadorial post, which also covers Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.