Bruce Miller (diplomat)

Bruce Miller
AO
16th Ambassador of Australia to Japan
In office
16 August 2011 (2011-08-16) – 11 April 2017 (2017-04-11)
Prime MinisterKevin Rudd
Julia Gillard
Tony Abbott
Malcolm Turnbull
Governor GeneralQuentin Bryce
Peter Cosgrove
Preceded byMurray McLean
Succeeded byRichard Court
Personal details
Born
Bruce Miller

1961
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Alma materUniversity of Sydney
OccupationDiplomat, public servant

Bruce James Miller AO (born 1961) is an Australian diplomat who was Australian Ambassador to Japan from 2011 until 2017. He was Director-General of the Office of National Assessments before retiring from the public service in December 2017.[1] Since then, he has taken up a number of private sector and academic roles, including as a non-executive director of Japanese owned life insurance company TAL.[2]

He graduated from the Faculty or Arts and the Faculty of Law of the University of Sydney, and joined the then Department of Foreign Affairs in 1986.[3] He served overseas in Tehran (1986–89), and in Tokyo (1992–96, 2004–08, and finally as Ambassador to Japan 2011-2017). He worked in three different Government departments, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (1997–98), and the Office of National Assessments (2009-11 as Deputy Director-General, and then as A/g Director-General for a year in 2017). He worked mainly on Australia’s political and economic relations with North Asia, international security and international legal issues. He was appointed as Chair of the Australia Japan Foundation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in August 2020.[4]

Growing up with an interest in East Asia and its culture since the age of 11, he learned to speak Japanese while at university, including studying in Japan 1981-83.[5]

In 2011, Miller was announced to replace Murray McLean as Ambassador of Australia to Japan, on 7 April that year, shortly after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and arrived to take up his posting in August.[6]

In 2022, Miller was appointed Chair of the Australian Government Foreign Investment Review Board, succeeding David Irvine after his death.[7]

  1. ^ "Maintaining a Strong and Secure Australia". Prime Minister of Australia press release 1 December 2017. Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on 24 March 2018. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  2. ^ "Board of Directors". TAL Dai-ichi Life. TAL Dai-ichi Life. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  3. ^ "Statement of Service, Appointments and Biographies". Canberra: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. December 2011. p. 445.
  4. ^ "Current AJF Board Members". Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  5. ^ "Aussie envoy a student of Japan | The Japan Times". 8 July 2014. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  6. ^ "Diplomatic appointment: Ambassador in Japan". Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  7. ^ "Former diplomat, intelligence chief appointed FIRB chairman". Australian Financial Review. 6 April 2022. Archived from the original on 6 April 2022. Retrieved 30 May 2024.