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Japan’s new consul general in Atlanta has hit the ground running since his arrival in early November, and his pace doesn’t seem likely to slow any time soon.
Mio Maeda, the country’s newly installed top diplomat for the Southeast, landed in Atlanta Nov. 3 and promptly began a full slate of engagements.
In less than two weeks on the ground, he has met with Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development and Metro Atlanta Chamber CEO Katie Kirkpatrick; attended a Veterans Day ceremony hosed by Gov. Brian Kemp; and taken in a performance of “Madama Butterfly” at the Atlanta Opera (his first event).
Later this week, Mr. Maeda is slated to attend the Southeast-United States Japan Conference in Orlando, where companies and economic development leaders will gather for an annual celebration of economic partnership between the country and the fastest-growing region of the United States.
SEUS-Japan, as it’s known, alternates between locations in Japan and in the Southeast. It was last held in-person in Savannah in 2019 before its return to Japan was postponed by the pandemic in 2020 and thwarted again the following year, when it eventually moved to a virtual format.
Japanese firms, particularly in the automotive sector, have invested heavily in the South, where Mr. Maeda’s consular jurisdiction covers four states: Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas.
Mr. Maeda, who previously served as deputy head of mission (second in command behind the ambassador) at Japan’s embassy in Switzerland, replaces former Consul General Kazuyuki Takeuchi, who left after a full three-year tenure of his own that culminated with the inauguration of the Peace Bell project, a traditional Japanese bell tower built with community funds on the site of The Carter Center in Atlanta.
Mr. Maeda, a veteran diplomat, started his career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1990 after graduating with a law concentration at the University of Tokyo. After holding various positions within the ministry’s consular and economic affairs bureaus, his international postings began in 2004 with stints at Japanese embassies in Italy, Vietnam and Afghanistan, interspersed with other roles at the back home at the ministry. Before taking up his post in Switzerland, he was chamberlain to the crown prince of Japan, Naruhito, who acceded the throne as emperor in May 2019. Mr. Maeda stayed on through July of that year.
In a welcome greeting, Mr. Maeda said he looked forward to experiencing the region’s legendary hospitality and perhaps riffing on it a bit as well.
“I’ve heard this is a very comfortable and good area to live. I would like to get used to life here, and make my own form of hospitality combining Japanese ‘omotenashi’ and ‘Southern hospitality,’” he wrote on the consulate’s website.
A native of Hyogo prefecture, Mr. Maeda is married and has one daughter. This is his first posting in the United States and first as consul general.
See his full biography here or embedded below.
mio-maeda-bio
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