The U.S.-Japan Council mourns the passing of Naoyuki Agawa, a founding member of the Council’s Board of Councilors. Agawa-san’s career included stints as a businessman, lawyer, author, scholar, diplomat, dean, teacher, cultural ambassador, and non-profit board member not to mention husband, father, grandfather, advisor, and friend.
Agawa-san has dedicated much of his life to understanding the United States (he studied abroad in Hawaii while a student at Keio, graduated from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and Law School, and taught at the University of Virginia), and used his unique knowledge to bring our two countries together. He understood that our two nations had overlapping strategic interests, and that our common values would make the world a safer, more secure, prosperous, and a better place to live. He believed in the importance of the security alliance, and was quite partial to the ties between the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. Navy as someone who loved the sea, ships, and sailing. He also understood the trade and business dimensions of our bilateral ties, having worked closely with Sony’s founder, Akio Morita. Agawa-san’s work was in service of this broader vision of a strong U.S.-Japan relationship. In that context, he understood that Japanese Americans could play a unique role in bringing our two countries together. This was likely sparked by an opportunity to intern for Senator Daniel Inouye early in his career.
Photo credit: Yomiuri Shimbun
From his role overseeing Japan’s public diplomacy with the United States under Ambassador Ryozo Kato, Agawa-san helped turn the Japanese American Leadership Delegation (JALD) program from a pilot to the signature program it has become. In 2010, he joined the Council’s founding Board of Councilors at the invitation of Senator Inouye, and faithfully served as advisor and supporter until stepping down this summer.
Throughout his career, Agawa-san brought a public diplomacy lens to his work, and respected how much of a difference individuals could make in the U.S.-Japan relationship, especially when supported with a platform such as USJC. Over the years, from his leadership roles at the Embassy of Japan, Keio University, Doshisha University, and CULCON, Agawa-san found ways to support the Council’s mission, and was especially interested in how to bring more young people, more geographic regions, and a more diverse voices into the relationship. Most recently, Agawa-san spoke at the Business Advisory Board, addressing, “Is the Japan-U.S. Alliance as Solid as Ever? ~Impact of Bipolarization of America and Japan’s Reluctance to Fight.”
Agawa-san eagerly supported the Council throughout our 15 year journey (and even earlier in the form of the JALD program) and seemed proud of how the Council had grown from an association of JALD alumni into an engine of action and pipeline for developing future leaders for the U.S.-Japan relationship that he loved so much. We at the Council owe a debt of gratitude to Agawa-san for all his contributions. We miss you, Agawa-san!
Contributors: Suzanne Basalla, Yuko Kaifu, Hanayo and Ryozo Kato, Satoru Murase and Masa Tanaka