Takeshi Komoto （河本 雄）serves as Minister at the Japanese Embassy in the United States of America since June 2018. His portfolio covers policy areas including economy, trade, industry and energy.
He joined Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), the predecessor of Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), in 1993. Much of his career focuses on international affairs.
Before his current assignment, he was the Managing Director for Multilateral Trading System, Trade Policy Bureau, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan since June 2017. He was responsible for World Trade Organization (WTO) issues as well as new global rule-makings in areas including digital trade and investment. He led the initiative to launch an exploratory work towards future negotiations on electronic commerce at the WTO in December 2017 at WTO Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In 2016-2017, Mr. Komoto was the Director for Bureau of Economic Revitalization of Japan, Cabinet Secretariat of the Japanese government. He was a senior member of the team that puts together the Growth Strategy of ABENOMICS, the structural reform program (“The Third Arrow”) of the economic policy led by Prime Minister Abe. He was also responsible for marketing ABENOMICS to business communities around the world.
Mr. Komoto was the Executive Director of Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) New York Office for three years in 2013-2016. His mission was to promote trade and investment between Japan and the United States.
In 2011-2013, he was the Director for FTA/EPA Negotiations and was responsible for a number of negotiations including on China-Japan-Korea (CJK) FTA, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP, what used to be called ASEAN+6), as well as Japan-Myanmar Bilateral Investment Agreement among others. He played a leading role in launching the negotiations for CJK FTA and RCEP in November 2012.
He was seconded to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Secretariat in Singapore in 2008-2011 as Program Director supporting committees on trade and investment as well as customs procedures. In 2010 when Japan was the Chair of APEC meetings, he supported the Japanese Government from the Secretariat as Host Economy Representative.
He worked on World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations in 2004-2006. He designed a Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) ministerial meeting for East Asian countries in Japan which greatly contributed to the agreement in supporting Swiss formula at the 2015 APEC Minster Responsible for Trade (MRT) Meeting in Jeju, South Korea.
He also has an experience of being seconded to Japan Defense Agency in 2002-2004, serving as a chief negotiator with the US Department of Defense on ballistic missile defense. He successfully concluded a deal between Japan and the US to cooperate in procurement and operation of missile defense system.
Mr. Komoto serves on Advisory Committee of Friends of U Tokyo, Inc. (FUTI), US NPO that supports student exchanges between University of Tokyo and US universities, since 2015.
He graduated from University of Tokyo in 1993 where he majored in economics. He received Master of Public Affairs from Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University in the United States in 1998.
He and his wife, Shiho, have three children, Ken, Jun, and Kano.
