H.E. Mr Minoru Shibuya, Permanent Representative of Japan to the OPCW.

H.E. Mr Minoru Shibuya, Permanent Representative of Japan to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, presented his credentials to the OPCW Director-General, Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, on 20 September 2007. He is concurrently accredited as Japan’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Ambassador Shibuya is a career diplomat, and prior to his present appointment, was the Chief of Protocol with Ambassadorial rank at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2007.

In his early diplomatic career, Ambassador Shibuya was posted to the Embassy of Japan in New Delhi in 1973, the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations in 1981 and subsequently, to Jakarta, Indonesia from 1983 to 1985. In the early 1990s he was posted to Bangkok and also served in Rome from 1993 to 1995. Subsequently he was posted to Washington D. C from 1995 to 1997 where he was a Minister at the Embassy of Japan and in 2000 he was appointed as Counsel-General of Japan in Honolulu. Ambassador Shibuya was the Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan from 2002 to 2004.

At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Shibuya has held important positions, including: Director, Southwest Asian Division and Regional Policy Division, Asian Affairs Bureau; Deputy Director-General of Economic Affairs Bureau and Northern American Affairs Bureau; and Ambassador for International Trade and Economic Affairs.

He graduated from the University of Tokyo (Faculty of Law) in 1970.