Remembering Okamoto Yukio (1946-2020)

We have lost a great friend. Okamoto Yukio has been our friend for many years and helped us establish the Centre for the Study of Global Japan. He passed away recently after contracting Covid-19.

Mr. Okamoto had a long, distinguished career in Japan’s diplomatic corps. Among the many prominent officials he mentored over the years were Ito Takako, the current Consul General of Japan in Toronto and her predecessor, Nakayama Yasunori. After he left the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1991, he built a successful private-sector consulting firm, served as a special advisor to two prime ministers, and held distinguished research and teaching positions at Ritsumeikan University, Tohoku University, and MIT.

In March 2016, Mr. Okamoto came to Toronto to give a lecture in the Asian Institute’s Japan NOW Series. A bridge builder between the United States and Japan for many decades, it was clear that he understood very well the importance of strong bilateral relations with Canada and the depth of economic and security interdependence between North America and Japan. He became a keen supporter of the idea of helping us establish a new foundation for the study of Japanese politics and diplomacy in the Munk School and the Department of Political Science. Similar initiatives had already been supported at Columbia, MIT, and Georgetown. Our Centre would not have been inaugurated in 2017 without his wise advice and counsel.

We visited Mr. Okamoto in Tokyo last October. He was in good spirits and keenly interested in policy developments across the Pacific as well as globally. He was very much looking forward to accepting a standing invitation to visit us again in Toronto soon. We join his many friends in expressing our sorrow at his untimely passing. He will be sorely missed.

Phillip Lipscy and Louis Pauly
Centre for the Study of Global Japan
University of Toronto