Mr Tomohiro Mikanagi
LCIL Partner Fellow
Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Tomohiro Mikanagi is Legal Advisor of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2022. From 2017 to 2019 he was a Visiting Fellow at the Centre, while he was based in London as Minister at the Embassy of Japan. Based on his research at the Centre, he published an article titled “Establishing a Military Presence in a Disputed Territory: Interpretation of Article 2(3) and (4) of the UN Charter” in ICLQ, Vol. 67, 2018. He co-organized two international workshops at the Centre in 2018 and 2019, which were titled “International Law and Cyber Security” and “The Future of Multilateralism”. After the workshops, inspired by discussion with the participants, he wrote an article titled “Attribution of cyber operations: an international law perspective on the Park Jin Hyok case”, co-authored with Kubo Mačák, in Cambridge International Law Journal, Vol. 9, 2020.
In his diplomatic career, in addition to London, he also served in NY and Beijing. In NY, he worked at the Japanese Permanent Mission to the UN, representing Japan in the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly and several subsidiary bodies of the Security Council. He also participated in the drafting of Security Council resolutions, including those relating to DPRK.
Positions he has held in Tokyo include Director of the UN Policy Division, Director of the International Legal Affairs Division and Deputy Legal Advisor. In recent years, he has been actively participating in various online events as a panelist, and, based on the discussion at these events, he published an article titled “Application of the Due Diligence Principle to Cyber Operations” in International Law Studies, Vol 97, 2021. His primary interest developed through these activities has been to examine behaviors of States that are contrary to the promotion of rule of law, explore rules of international law that might or might not be applicable to such behaviors, and look for a possible way forward. He graduated in law from the University of Tokyo and read international law at the University of Cambridge for Diploma in International Law and LL.M (international law).
