In August 2014, Harry (Hidehisa) Horinouchi was appointed the Consul General of Japan, Los Angeles. This is his second U.S. mission, with his first being a counselor at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C. from 1996 to 1999. During his 25-year career in Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), he has held various positions in both Japan and China. His ministry assignments at MOFA’s headquarters in Tokyo involved legal affairs, treaties portfolios, Asian and Oceanian regional affairs and international intelligence analysis. He has authored numerous articles in law journals on international legal issues, authored a book published in China entitled Longevity of Japan, and has been a lecturer on international law at Waseda University. He is a graduate of the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Law and attended Nanjing University in China and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Tokyo Journal’s Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie met with Consul General Horinouchi shortly after Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s historic visit to Los Angeles.

TJ: First of all, how did you get the name “Harry?”
HORINOUCHI: It’s a nickname. When I first lived in Washington, D.C. in the late ‘90s, I insisted that my American friends call me Horinouchi or Hidehisa. Nobody could read my five-syllable surname or four-syllable first name, and the problem is that if you can’t pronounce a person’s name, you don’t remember the person. I tried for three years, but that failed. I didn’t want another failure here in Los Angeles. Many of my friends call me Hori san, and Harry and Hori sound almost the same. When I came here, I read The Clifton Chronicles by Jeffrey Archer and I thought, “Oh, Harry is a good name.” So I put Harry in front of my first name and have been asking people to call me that. 

TJ: Can you tell us a little about your career before you came to Los Angeles?
HORINOUCHI: I joined the Japan Foreign Ministry in 1980. I chose Chinese as my second language, so the Ministry sent me to study Chinese at Nanjing University for two years. Then I studied at Harvard for one year before returning to Tokyo to work in the Foreign Ministry. My first foreign assignment was in China in the early ‘90s, and I went to Washington, D.C. in the late ‘90s. After 2000, I had another two assignments in China. This is my first experience on the West Coast of the United States.

TJ: How long did you live in China and how did you learn to speak Chinese?
HORINOUCHI: I lived there for 12 years. Even before joining the Ministry I wanted to become a diplomat in China, so I chose Chinese as my second foreign language in university, but the level for second foreign languages is actually not very high. I mainly learned the Chinese language after joining the Ministry when they sent me to China to study for two years.

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