Takeo Akiba (秋葉剛男, ''Akiba Takeo'', born 19 December 1958) is a Japanese diplomat who served as National Security Advisor to the Cabinet from 2021 to 2025. He had a long career as a diplomat in the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

, serving as administrative vice minister from 2018 to 2021.

Biography

Takeo Akiba was born on 19 December 1958, in Kawasaki,

Kanagawa Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

, but he grew up in

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

. Through junior and senior high school, Akiba attended Eiko Gakuen, where he was part of the soccer team. He later studied law at the

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

and joined the

after graduating in 1982. Akiba was sent to receive English language training at the

Fletcher School at Tufts University The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is the graduate school of international affairs of Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. Fletcher is one of America's oldest graduate schools of international relations. As of 2017, the student bo ...

in the United States. As a diplomat Akiba held foreign postings in the embassy to the United States besides internal service as the Ministry mainly with the Treaty Bureau and the Minister's Secretariat. His appointment as chief of the China division in the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau in 2007 was seen as snub to the "China School" of the ministry. Akiba was considered to represent a hard line towards China. He later served as political minister at the embassy to the United States and as senior counsellor in the Minister's Secretariat. Akiba was appointed chief of the International Legal Affairs Bureau in July 2014, and chief of the Foreign Policy Bureau in October of the following year. He was promoted to deputy foreign minister for political affairs (外務審議官, ''Gaimu Shingikan'') in June 2016. In January 2018, he was made administrative vice minister for foreign affairs. Akiba was deeply trusted by Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe Shinzo Abe (21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. ...

and Chief Cabinet Secretary

Yoshihide Suga is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), LDP) from 2020 to 2021. He had served as Chief Cabinet Secretary during the second administration ...

, and played a central role in formulating and promoting the concept of the

Free and Open Indo-Pacific Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP; ) is an umbrella term that encompasses Indo-Pacific-specific strategies of countries with similar interests in the region. The concept, with its origins in Weimar German geopolitics, has been revived since 2006 ...

. Akiba retired from the ministry in June 2021, but on the following month he was appointed national security advisor to the Cabinet and secretary general of the

National Security Secretariat The National Security Council is a United Kingdom cabinet committee. The Council's terms of reference were said in September 2022 to include matters relating to national security, foreign policy, defence, trade, international relations, developme ...

by Yoshihide Suga, who had succeeded Abe as prime minister. Akiba remained when

Fumio Kishida Fumio Kishida (born 29 July 1957) is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party ( LDP) from 2021 to 2024. He has been a member of the House of Representatives in the National Diet ...

succeeded Suga. Akiba was replaced in January 2025, but remains a special advisor to the Cabinet.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akiba, Takeo 1958 births Living people People from Kawasaki, Kanagawa University of Tokyo alumni The Fletcher School at Tufts University alumni Diplomats for Japan