NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF JAPAN PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

Biographical Note

NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF JAPAN PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

(Based on information received from the Protocol and Liaison Service.)

Koichi Haraguchi, the new Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations, presented his credentials to Secretary-General Kofi Annan today.

From 1999 until his current appointment, Mr. Haraguchi served as Japan's Ambassador to the international organizations in Geneva.  Prior to that he served as his country’s Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs beginning in 1997.  Before that he was Deputy Vice Minister in 1996.

From 1994 to 1996, Mr. Haraguchi was Director-General of the Economic Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  From 1992 to 1994, he was Japan’s Consul-General in Los Angeles, and from 1988 to 1992, he was the Ministry's Deputy Director-General of Press and Public Affairs for one year and of its Economic Affairs Bureau for three.

From 1985 to 1988, Mr. Haraguchi served as a Counsellor in the Embassy of Japan to the United States.  In 1984 he was a Fellow at Harvard University and from 1982 to 1984, he was a Counsellor of his country's Embassy in the Republic of Korea, after serving in 1981 as a Private Secretary to Japan's Foreign Minister.

Mr. Haraguchi also served his country's Embassy in Indonesia from 1966 to 1969 and as a First Secretary to the International Organizations in Geneva from 1974 to 1979.  Other divisions of Japan's Foreign Affairs Ministry in which he served include the Economic Cooperation Division, the North America Division, the African Affairs Division and the Analysis Division.

Mr. Haraguchi graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1964.  He is married and has three sons.