List of ambassadors of the United States to Japan
The Ambassador of the United States of America to Japan is the ambassador from the United States of America to Japan.
History
Since the opening of Japan by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, in 1854, the U.S. has maintained diplomatic relations with Japan, except for the ten-year period between the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the signing of the Treaty of San Francisco, which normalized relations between the United States and Japan. The United States maintains an embassy in Tokyo, with consulates-general in Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, and Naha.Due to the significance of the relations between the two countries in recent years on trade and defense, with Japan being described by the United States State Department as "the cornerstone of U.S. security interests in Asia," the post has been held by many significant American politicians, including Mike Mansfield, Walter Mondale, Tom Foley and Howard Baker.
List of chiefs of mission
The following is a list of chiefs of mission.Resident Ministers
- Townsend Harris
- Robert H. Pruyn
- Chauncey Depew
- Robert B. Van Valkenburgh
- Charles E. DeLong
| Name | Presented credentials | End of term | End of date |
| Charles E. DeLong | June 9, 1872 | Farewell address | October 7, 1873 |
| John Bingham | October 7, 1873 | Presented recall | July 2, 1885 |
| Richard B. Hubbard | July 2, 1885 | Presented recall | May 15, 1889 |
| John Franklin Swift | May 15, 1889 | Died at post | March 10, 1891 |
| Frank Coombs | June 13, 1892 | Presented recall | July 14, 1893 |
| Edwin Dun | July 14, 1893 | Presented recall | July 2, 1897 |
| Alfred Buck | June 3, 1898 | Died at post | December 4, 1902 |
| Lloyd Carpenter Griscom | June 22, 1903 | Left Japan | November 19, 1905 |
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
| Name | Presented credentials | End of term | End of date |
| Luke E. Wright | May 26, 1906 | Left Japan | August 13, 1907 |
| Thomas J. O'Brien | October 15, 1907 | Left Post | August 31, 1911 |
| Charles Page Bryan | November 22, 1911 | Left Post | October 1, 1912 |
| Larz Anderson | February 1, 1913 | Left Japan | March 15, 1913 |
| George W. Guthrie | August 7, 1913 | Died at post | March 8, 1917 |
| Roland Morris | October 30, 1917 | Left Japan | May 15, 1920 |
| Charles B. Warren | September 24, 1921 | Left Japan | January 28, 1923 |
| Cyrus Woods | July 21, 1923 | Left Japan | June 5, 1924 |
| Edgar Bancroft | November 19, 1924 | Died at post | July 27, 1925 |
| Charles MacVeagh | December 9, 1925 | Left Japan | December 6, 1928 |
| William Castle, Jr. | January 24, 1930 | Left Japan | May 27, 1930 |
| W. Cameron Forbes | September 15, 1930 | Left Japan | March 22, 1932 |
| Joseph Grew | June 14, 1932 | American declaration of war | December 8, 1941 |
| William J. Sebald | 1945 | 1952 | |
| Robert D. Murphy | May 9, 1952 | Relinquished Charge | April 28, 1953 |
| John M. Allison | May 28, 1953 | Left Post | February 2, 1957 |
| Douglas MacArthur II | February 25, 1957 | Left Post | March 12, 1961 |
| Edwin Reischauer | April 27, 1961 | Left Post | August 19, 1966 |
| U. Alexis Johnson | November 8, 1966 | Left Post | January 15, 1969 |
| Armin H. Meyer | July 3, 1969 | Left Post | March 27, 1972 |
| Robert S. Ingersoll | April 12, 1972 | Left Post | November 8, 1973 |
| James Day Hodgson | July 19, 1974 | Left Post | February 2, 1977 |
| Michael J. Mansfield | June 10, 1977 | Left Post | December 22, 1988 |
| Michael Armacost | May 15, 1989 | Left Post | July 19, 1993 |
| Walter F. Mondale | September 21, 1993 | Left Post | December 15, 1996 |
| Thomas S. Foley | November 19, 1997 | Left Post | April 1, 2001 |
| Howard H. Baker, Jr. | July 5, 2001 | Farewell address | February 17, 2005 |
| Tom Schieffer | April 11, 2005 | Left Post | January 20, 2009 |
| John Roos | August 20, 2009 | Left Post | August 12, 2013 |
| Caroline Kennedy | November 12, 2013 | Left Post | January 18, 2017 |
| William F. Hagerty | July 27, 2017 | Left Post | July 22, 2019 |