AMBASSADOR'S NIGHT
Volker Stanzel, The Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Japan

The speech and Q & A will be in English

We are very happy to kick off our new event series "Ambassador's Night" with a real Asia Hand, the German ambassador Volker Stanzel. Fluent in Chinese and Japanese, he is not only one of the most eminent diplomats of the German foreign service, he also served in Asia at two crucial times: In the run up to the Olympic Games in Beijing he was Ambassador to China; and as a result of the earthquake and the subsequent nuclear accident in Tohoku his Japan assignment also grew in significance.

From the beginning, the embassy had a role to fulfill in crisis management and the coordination of Germany's contribution to the reconstruction in Tohoku; but since then the relationship between the two countries grew in importance as they go against the global trend of the nuclear renaissance and switch off their nuclear power stations. Join the event and listen to what Ambassador Stanzel has to say about the German reaction to the disaster as well as the present and future of Japanese-German relations.

From 1995 to 1998, Volker Stanzel was Foreign Policy Advisor to the Social Democratic Party of Germany in the German Bundestag, and in 2007 he became Political Director in the Foreign Ministry after his stint in China. He is also author of several academic papers. His publications in English include, "A World of Warring States: China's Perception and Possibilities of its International Role" and "Remembering and Forgetting: But Will the Past Forget about Us?"

Volker Stanzel, The Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Japan