Junichi Sumi — Deputy Consul General of Japan in Seattle

Junichi Sumi ■ Born in Shimane Prefecture in 1973. After graduating from Aoyama Gakuin University with a BA in International Politics and Economics, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in 1998, starting his career at its headquarters in Tokyo. During his overseas training, he received a master’s degree in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He is an expert on the Middle East and the Farsi language. In addition to MOFA, he has worked in Iran (twice), Afghanistan, Iraq and New York (Permanent Mission to the United Nations). He has been in his current position in Seattle since March 2023, leaving behind a wife, son and daughter in Tokyo.

The house where Sumi lived shortly after he was born is now part of the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine World Heritage Site in Shimane Prefecture. The family moved to Izumo City, 50 kilometers away, when he was two years old. He lived there until he graduated from high school. As a child, he excelled both academically and athletically. In elementary school. He served as president of the student council and was a member of the year-round soccer and brass band clubs, as well as the summer swim team, fall track and field team, and winter gymnastics team. At junior high school, he was appointed president of the student council and was also active in the soccer team. Izumo Daisan Junior High School, which Sumi attended, had an unspoken rule at the time that students with high physical ability should belong to the soccer club, and by the time Sumi was in his third year, the school had become a powerhouse, participating in national tournaments. When he moved on to Izumo High School, a local university-track school, he made a complete turnaround and joined the basketball team. At this mammoth school with 11 classes per grade, he was selected for the advanced class.

Despite his prominence, Sumi has few memories of those days. “I had a strong desire to get out of the countryside,” he says. This was before the Internet. The gap between the city and the countryside was tremendous. “When a baseball game goes into extra innings on TV, it says, ‘The game will be broadcast except in certain areas.’ I was shocked to find out that I lived one of those ‘certain areas’ that didn’t get the broadcast.”

“I definitely want to go to Tokyo, or even overseas,” Sumi recalls thinking. While many of his classmates went on to Shimane University, Hiroshima University or even as far away as Osaka, Sumi had already set his sights on going abroad. As he had hoped, he entered a university in Tokyo, but he was not satisfied with that and took a voluntary leave of absence in his junior year to study abroad in Boston and Brighton in southern England for a total of nine months. When he returned to Japan, all of his friends who had advanced to their senior years had already found jobs. Sumi was still undecided about his career path well into his senior year. Then, through a high school alum, he learned of the Foreign Service Examination and thought, “This is the best way I can get overseas training for two or three years while working.”

In December of his senior year, he joined an on-campus study group and began preparing for the exam held the following June. He immersed himself in his studies. Yukiko, his girlfriend at the time and eventually his wife, gave him the support he needed. After successfully passing the written examination, Sumi faced the interview phase, where he was asked why he wanted to join MOFA. “I told them I wanted to be someone who radiates an aura. Looking back, I think that was a risky line,” he says, laughing. “I believed I could change myself by meeting people I wouldn’t normally meet and living a life I wouldn’t normally lead. I wanted to test myself in a different environment. That’s what I felt strongly about.”

He passed the exam with flying colors. His desire to leave Izumo behind for the greater world had come true.

The journey to become an Iran expert

After joining MOFA, Sumi was assigned to specialize in Farsi, and thus began his path as an Iran expert. With his natural dynamism and intuition, he began tackling the difficult Farsi language. In London, his first training destination, he studied under an Iranian professor at SOAS, University of London, where he earned a master’s degree in Near and Middle Eastern Studies. During his stay in London, despite being newly married, he stayed at the home of an Iranian writer. It was the shortest way to absorb not only the language but also Iranian customs and ways of thinking firsthand. For the remaining 18 months of his training, he moved to Iran, where he studied Farsi through intensive lessons with two Iranian tutors and at an institution affiliated with the University of Tehran.

Sumi’s ability to dive into Iranian society, build a wide range of human relationships, and collect and analyze information accurately and objectively made him a valuable resource who could understand the unique subtleties of the Iranian people. He became a trusted figure in Japan-Iran relations.

Diplomats sometimes serve as liaisons. They accompany prime ministers, presidents and other dignitaries when they visit other countries and are responsible for resolving sudden problems on the ground. The job requires quick judgment and tact. Sumi served as a liaison for the then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who visited Iran in June 2019, the first visit by a Japanese prime minister since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Sumi also served as liaison for Iranian President Hassan Rohani when he visited Japan in December of the same year. He also served as the interpreter for the Emperor of Japan at the presentation of credentials by Iranian Ambassador to Japan Abbas Araghchi in March 2008. “Those experiences gave me confidence,” he says.

Of course, it was not all glamorous work. In November 2003, an incident occurred that shook Sumi to his core. Two Japanese diplomats and their embassy driver were attacked and killed in Iraq. At the time, the war in Iraq had ended and the international community was beginning to provide reconstruction assistance. Japanese diplomats stationed in neighboring countries were also providing support. Three months before the incident occurred, Sumi also spent one month in Iraq from Tehran as part of this support effort. One of the diplomats killed in the incident was a 30-year-old Arabic language specialist the same age as Sumi.

After the incident, he decided to “live life three times faster. When in doubt, try. Failure is fine. I don’t want to live each day with the feeling of regret.” Sumi was involved in the rescue of a Japanese American journalist in Iran. When the journalist was arrested and detained in Iran, Sumi drafted a Japanese government official’s statement urging her early release. He included a phrase that would “pierce the hearts of the Iranian people.” The journalist was eventually released.

In Afghanistan, too, death was close at hand. In December 2001, just after the fall of the Taliban regime, Sumi volunteered to go to Afghanistan to serve as an interpreter for Yukio Hatoyama, then-leader of the Democratic Party of Japan. Sumi then worked at the Japanese Embassy in Kabul for two years from 2004. During the long years of conflict in Afghanistan, he met tribal leaders who had extraordinary auras that only those who have survived life-and-death battles can possess. Even in Afghanistan, Sumi recalls, “I have many happy memories of my time there.” Practically every day, he hosted parties at his home, inviting government officials, United Nations and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) staff. Although the purpose was to gather information and build a network of contacts, the social gatherings were vintage Sumi, who cherishes each and every encounter.

Sumi’s activities took an unexpected turn in 2020: when the coronavirus struck the world, he was head of the General Affairs Section (and head of the Center for Public Information and Culture) at the Embassy of Japan in Iran. At the time, Iran had the third highest number of infection cases in the world after China and Italy, and Tehran was the first area with a Japanese diplomatic mission abroad to be placed on infectious disease risk level 3. Amid widespread border closures, Sumi played a key role under the ambassador’s leadership, securing evacuation routes for Japanese nationals and providing information in Japanese.

When asked if Seattle is uninspiring compared to his 12 years in turbulent Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, he replied, “No, it is not. I think the people who say it is boring are boring people.” There are many things you can only experience in Seattle, he adds. For example, the Nikkei community. There are many kenjinkai (Japanese prefectural associations) in Seattle, where the Nikkei have a long history, and Sumi has personally joined 10 of them. He also hosts parties for anywhere from dozens to over a hundred people each month to expand his network of Nikkei, Japanese nationals, Americans, Iranians and others in the area.

Sumi’s talent as an entertainer has gained him a reputation and he has been asked to perform at various events. He has been invited to speak at Ignite Seattle (https://igniteseattle.com), a public talk event originated in Seattle, at the JIA-sponsored SEIJIN-shiki USA and to sing at the Japan Fair. In his private life, he tries everything that looks interesting, from digging for geoduck to brewing beer. He is always up for a challenge.

He also found himself reconnecting with his hometown of Izumo while in Seattle. In the exhibition space of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington (JCCCW), where the history of the Nikkei community is chronicled, a letter from Genji Mihara, the first principal of Nihonjinkai Fuzoku Shogako (now the Seattle Japanese Language School) and a leader of the Nikkei community, is displayed. Mihara was born in Izumo. And although Sumi was so disgusted with his hometown in his younger days that he ran away, he is now serving as one of the prefecture’s goodwill ambassadors, commissioned by the governor of Shimane Prefecture.

He also found himself reconnecting with his hometown of Izumo while in Seattle. In the exhibition space of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington (JCCCW), where the history of the Nikkei community is chronicled, a letter from Genji Mihara, the first principal of Nihonjinkai Fuzoku Shogako (now the Seattle Japanese Language School) and a leader of the Nikkei community, is displayed. Mihara was born in Izumo. And although Sumi was so disgusted with his hometown in his younger days that he ran away, he is now serving as one of the prefecture’s goodwill ambassadors, commissioned by the governor of Shimane Prefecture.

A mysterious connection awaited him in Seattle. Sumi had heard that a senior Farsi expert two years his senior had trained in the United States, but he had no idea that the colleague had lived in Seattle. However, shortly after his arrival, during a casual conversation with an Iranian woman, Sumi learned that this colleague had done a homestay at her family’s house 26 years earlier. To his surprise, a woman standing next to her then handed him her business card. She turned out to be the family’s granddaughter, three years old during the colleague’s homestay, who was now serving as the first Iranian American woman in the Washington State House of Representatives. “I think these coincidences came together and called me to Seattle,” Sumi says.
Sumi’s love and respect for the Iranian people have caused him trouble at times. He has been called “a supporter of a terrorist state,” and articles he has written have been bashed. However, Sumi’s feelings are unwavering. Iran, a major power in the Middle East, is in an extremely important region for Japan’s energy security, and the two countries, located on the eastern and western edges of the Silk Road, have traditionally maintained friendly relations. He is proud of his connections to the country.

As a young man, Sumi said he wanted to be someone who radiates an aura. Today, he exudes an aura of a highly-skilled diplomat with the boldness to take on new challenges. He is no ordinary government official. Sumi, with a twinkle in his eye, lives life to the fullest.