Trump to Nominate Weinstein to Be US Ambassador to Japan

March 15, 2020

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that he intends to nominate Kenneth Weinstein, president of the Hudson Institute think tank, to be U.S. ambassador to Japan.

Weinstein is said to be in a close relationship with Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Approval from the U.S. Senate is needed before Weinstein takes office.

After entering the politically conservative think tank in 1991, Weinstein assumed the current post in March 2011.

He launched the Washington-based institute's Japan Chair and appointed H.R. McMaster, former national security adviser to Trump, as head of the new division specializing in Japan.

The institute has been influential in U.S. political and business circles as a think tank having the closest ties with the Trump administration.

Weinstein is close to the inner circle of the Trump administration, and he is the most suitable person for strengthening Japan-U.S. ties, a source familiar with the situation said.

Trump had decided on his nomination by the end of last year, according to informed sources.

Weinstein earned a doctor's degree at Harvard University. He serves on the Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiation, which advises the U.S. trade representative.

His previous posts include director of the Government Reform Project at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. He is proficient in French and German.

In August 2017, William Hagerty, founder of a U.S. investment company, became U.S. ambassador to Japan. The post has been left vacant since he resigned last July to run for the U.S. Senate.

Joseph Young, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo, has been assuming duties as the embassy's charge d'affaires ad interim. Jiji Press