YORIKO KAWAGUCHI

YORIKO KAWAGUCHI

The Global Ocean Commissioners face a daunting task .... tackling ocean pollution and fishing pirates

Yoriko Kawaguchi

Yoriko Kawaguchi is a former Foreign Minister and Environment Minister of Japan, and is now a Visiting Professor at the Meiji Institute for Global Affairs in Tokyo.

Ms Kawaguchi served as Minister of the Environment between 2000 and 2002 and as Minister for Foreign Affairs between 2002 and 2004. Subsequently she was appointed as a Special Advisor to the Prime Minister, responsible for foreign affairs, before entering the House of Councillors (the upper house of the Diet) where she chaired the Standing Committee on Environment.

A former economist at the World Bank, she held the position of Minister in the Embassy of Japan, USA, in 1990. Between 1992 and 1993 she was Director-General of Global Environmental Affairs at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (now Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry).

Together with former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, Ms Kawaguchi co-chaired the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.

She holds a BA in international relations from the University of Tokyo and a master’s degree in economics from Yale University. She is also a recipient of the Wilbur Cross Medal, a Yale University award for distinguished public service.

Yoriko Kawaguchi was born on January the 14th 1941. She is a Japanese politician. Born in Tokyo, she holds a BA in international relations from the University of Tokyo, and an M.Phil in economics from Yale University, where she became a Member of President’s Council on International Activities. Currently, she is a visiting Professor at the Meiji Institute for Global Affairs in Tokyo.

Kawaguchi is a former Minister of the Environment of Japan from 2000 to 2002. Subsequently, she served Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2002 to 2004 and continued as a Special Adviser to the Japanese Prime Minister for foreign affairs from 2004 to 2005. She was also a former Member of the House of Councillors for the Liberal Democratic Party from 2005 to 2013. On July 2008, She was appointed cochair of a new International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, with former Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Gareth Evans.

AWARDS

On December 2003, Kawaguchi received the “Aguila Azteca Medal” from Vicente Fox, President of the United Mexican States. She is a recipient of an Anniversary Medal from the mayor of Sankt-Peterburg during the 300th anniversary of the city. March 2004, the Republic of Paraguay awarded Kawaguchi with the “Gran Cruz Extraordinaria” (National Testimonial Medal). She also received a Certificate of Doctor Honoris Causa by the authority of the Academic Council of the National University of Mongolia in September 2004. On October 2008, Kawaguchi received a Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale University for distinguished public service. She was also awarded “Star of Jerusalem” on October 2010 by Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority. October the following year, she received once again an Anniversary Medal for a major contribution to global security promotion and non-proliferation regime by K. Kadyrzhanov, Director General of the National Nuclear Center.

CAREER

A former economist at the World Bank, Kawaguchi served as Minister at the Embassy of Japan to the United States in 1990. She worked as a Director General of Global Environmental Affairs at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (now Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) between 1992 and 1993 before becoming a Managing Director of Suntory Holdings Ltd. in September 1993. In 2000, Kawaguchi was the director-general of the Environment Agency.

She was elected to the House of Councillors in 2005, serving two terms through 2013. During her years as a Diet member, she served as deputy chair of the General Assembly of Liberal Democratic Party members in the Upper House. She also became the director and chair of the Environment Committee, director of the Budget Committee and director of the Commission on the Constitution. Kawaguchi served as chair of the LDP Okinawa Promotion Committee as well as co-chair of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament and a board member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders Foundation in 2008. Currently, she is a member of the Tokyo Foundation CSR Committee.

GLOBAL OCEAN COMMISSIONERS - CO-CHAIRS


José María Figueres	Trevor Manuel	David Miliband

THE COMMISSIONERS


Carol Browner	Victor Chu	Obiageli Ezekwesili	Luiz Furlan	Vladimir Golitsyn	Robert Hill	Yoriko Kawaguchi
.	.	.	.	.	.	.

Pascal Lamy	Paul Martin	Sri Mulyani Indrawati	Cristina Narbona	Ratan Tata	Foua Toloa	Andrés Velasco

GOC's SECRETARIAT


Simon Reddy	Rémi Parmentier	Clare Brennan	Kristian Teleki	Inés de Águeda	Sarah Gardner

The Global Ocean Commission
Somerville College
Woodstock Road
Oxford, OX2 6HD
Tel: UK+44 (0) 1865 280747

The Global Ocean Commission at its meeting in Oxford, 21st-23rd November 2013 (left to right) Robert Hill, Paul Martin, Foua Toloa, Yoriko Kawaguchi, Simon Reddy (Executive Secretary), Victor Chu, Andrés Velasco, Obiageli Ezekwesili, Trevor Manuel (Co-chair), Cristina Narbona, David Miliband (Co-chair), John Podesta, Pascal Lamy, José María Figueres (Co-chair), Vladimir Golitsyn, Sir Ratan Tata.