Nobukatsu Kanehara

Executive Director of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation

Nobukatsu Kanehara is the Executive Director of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation and a professor at Reitaku University. He served as Assistant Chief Cabinet Secretary to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe from 2012 to 2019. In 2013, he became the inaugural Deputy Secretary-General of the National Security Secretariat, a role which he held until he retired from government service in 2019. He also served as Deputy Director of the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office. From 2020 to March 2025, he served as a professor at Doshisha University. Mr. Kanehara’s role in the Cabinet built on a distinguished career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he served in several notable positions, including Director-General of the Bureau of International Law, Deputy Director-General of the Foreign Policy Bureau, Ambassador in charge of the United Nations and Human Rights. He served abroad as Deputy Chief of Mission in Seoul, Republic of Korea, and as Political Minister at the Embassy of Japan in Washington. He was decorated by the president of the Republic of France with l’Ordre de la Legion d’Honneur.

Updated: February 20, 2025

Agenda

My Neighbour’s Problem Today, Mine Tomorrow: Rightsizing the China Challenge

LMC 2025

Articles

Free Nations in the New Era

The 20th century was full of revolutions and wars that claimed tens of millions of lives. But by the end of the millennium, humanity was succeeding in building a wonderful world which would be called the liberal or rule-based international order. Then came the 21st…

Nobukatsu Kanehara

LMC 2025