Japan’s Atlanta consulate-general Takashi Shinozuka will provide the keynote address during Troy University’s summer commencement exercises.

More than 500 students representing 17 U.S. states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and five nations outside the U.S. are expected to receive diplomas in the ceremony that begins at 10 a.m. Friday, July 27 in Trojan Arena on the Troy Campus.

Shinozuka assumed the post, his first in the United States, in January 2016 and directs the consulate’s operations in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

A graduate of the University of Tokyo in law, Shinozuka began his career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1978. He was enrolled in the Foreign Students Course at the Ecole Nationale d’ Administration in Paris and, in 1991, was appointed first secretary at Japan’s Embassy in Myanmar. In late 1993, he was appointed first secretary of Japan’s embassy in France, where he was awarded the Officer of National Order of Merit (France) for his service there.

In 1996, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affair’s Bureau of Economic Affairs as director of Second International Economic Affairs Division. In 1998, he became director for international cooperation at the National Institute of Research Advancement.  He was appointed director of the Office of Abandoned Chemical Weapons in the Cabinet Office in 2001, and joined the Imperial Household Agency as master of ceremonies in 2004. He was promoted to vice grand master of ceremonies prior to his posting in Atlanta.

The Shinozukas live in Buckhead and have twin daughters.