The Consulate General of Japan in Atlanta is coming to Dalton on Wednesday morning to meet with Mayor Dennis Mock and to visit and tour two Japanese-owned businesses in the area.
Consul General Takashi Shinozuka will meet with Mayor Mock at City Hall and then visit auto parts manufacturer Shiroki-GA, LLC and Kobayashi Healthcare, LLC which manufactures wholesale health and beauty products.
Mr. Shinozuka graduated from the University of Tokyo with a law degree in March 1978 and joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the following month. From 1979 to 1981, he was enrolled in the Foreign Students Course at the École Nationale d'Administration in Paris.
Mr. Shinozuka was appointed as first secretary at the Embassy of Japan in Myanmar in February 1991 and returned to France shortly after. In November 1993 he held the post of first secretary at the Embassy of Japan in France. He was promoted and worked as councillor until mid-1996.
Following this tour of duty in France, he was presented with the award of Officer of the National Order of Merit (France) (Officier de l'Ordre du Mérite) by the French government.
In 1996 he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affair’s Bureau of Economic Affairs as director of Second International Economic Affairs Division. Two years later he became director for International Cooperation at the National Institute for Research Advancement.
Mr. Shinozuka became director for the Office of Abandoned Chemical Weapons in the Cabinet Office in 2001. In 2004 he joined the Imperial Household Agency as Master of Ceremonies and was later promoted to Vice Grand Master of Ceremonies.
He arrived in Atlanta for his first United States Appointment as Consul General for the Consulate of Japan (managing the Southeastern states) in January 2016 and is a member of the Rotary Club of Atlanta.
Mr. Shinozuka is joined by his wife and twin daughters. They attend the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Buckhead, Atlanta.