Shigeo Yamada ’89
Since his October 2023 appointment as Japan’s ambassador to the United States, Shigeo Yamada’s days have been packed. The 1989 Carleton grad has visited with an array of politicians, from US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin. He attended the Motion Picture Association’s screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron in Washington, D.C. He hosted 1,000 guests at his home for a reception in celebration of the birthday of Naruhito, His Majesty the Emperor of Japan. And in April, he welcomed Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a state dinner and policy meeting with President Joe Biden.
Yamada’s appointment as “ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary” is a capstone to a long career that began shortly before his arrival at Carleton. While studying law at Keio University in 1986, he joined Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After graduating the next year, he came to Northfield, where, living on the fourth floor of Evans Hall, he earned a BA in political science. “My two years at Carleton were part of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s training program for young diplomats: two years at a small college to learn the language and understand the country.” In the 35 years since, he’s served in diplomatic posts in Tokyo, London, Beijing, and Washington, including, most recently, as Japan’s senior deputy minister for foreign affairs.
“The Japan-U.S. relationship is stronger than ever,” he tells the Voice. “But this strong government-to-government relationship could not have been achieved without a firm basis of trust between our two peoples, nurtured by multi-layered people-to-people exchanges.”
In April, Yamada was deeply involved with a gift symbolizing this relationship. After hearing that some of the beloved cherry trees gifted by Tokyo to the American capitol city in 1912 would need to be removed to improve the Tidal Basin’s seawall, Japan stepped up. “To celebrate the 250th anniversary of [American] independence in 2026, we decided to donate 250 new cherry trees to the United States.”