Hitoshi Tanaka

This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "Hitoshi Tanaka" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Hitoshi Tanaka (January 15, 1947) is a former Japanese diplomat. He is a Special Advisor (and former chairperson) of the Institute for International Strategy at the Japan Research Institute, and a Senior Fellow of the Japan Center for International Exchange.^[1]

As a diplomat in Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1969–2005) he served as Director of the North America Division, North America Bureau; Director of the Northeast Asia Division, Asia Bureau; Minister, Embassy of Japan in the United Kingdom; Director, General Affairs Division, Foreign Policy Bureau; Deputy Director General, North America Bureau; Consul General of Japan in San Francisco; Director, Economic Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Director, Asia and Pacific Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Deputy Foreign Minister.^[2]

During his tenure as Director-General of the Asia and Pacific Bureau, he conducted secret negotiations with North Korea, which led to the 2002 Japan-North Korea Pyongyang Declaration.^[3]