Masatoshi Muto


Masatoshi Muto is a Japanese professor and former diplomat who served as the Japanese ambassador to South Korea from 2010 to 2012. He also served as the Japanese ambassador to Kuwait in the late 2000s and was the Japanese consul-general in Hawaii in the early 2000s.

Early life and education

Muto was born in the Setagaya ward of Tokyo and graduated from Yokohama National University in 1972, where he studied economics. Muto also studied Korean and is reportedly fluent in the language.

Career

In August 2010, Muto became the Japanese ambassador to South Korea. He was briefly recalled by the Japanese government in protest of an August 2012 visit by the South Korean president to the Liancourt Rocks, which Japan claims but South Korea controls and administers. He eventually returned to his post. Muto's successor,, was nominated in September 2012, and Muto left the post in October 2012. Muto's posting to South Korea was his last official diplomatic position; he has since retired from diplomatic work and now works as a diplomatic analyst and critic.
In recent years, Muto has criticized as what he perceives to be a high level of anti-Japanese sentiment in China and South Korea. He claims that in China, anti-Japanese sentiment is cultivated for the benefit of the state, whereas in South Korea's case, anti-Japanese sentiment is actually hurting the country's interests rather than helping it.
Muto has reportedly taken a dismissive view of Japanese war crimes and atrocities committed during World War II.