The Chair of the Board of Governors for 2005-2006 is the Ambassador and Resident Representative from Japan, Mr. Yukiya Amano. He succeeds the Governor of Canada, Ms. Ingrid Hall.
Mr. Amano took up his current assignment as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the International Organizations in Vienna and Japan's Governor on the IAEA's Board of Governors in September 2005.
A graduate of the Tokyo University Faculty of Law, Mr. Amano joined the Japanese Foreign Ministry in April 1972.
Mr. Amano has held increasingly senior positions in the Japanese Foreign Ministry, notably as Director of the Science Division, Director of the Nuclear Energy Division and Deputy Director General for Arms Control and Scientific Affairs. He was appointed Director-General for Arms Control and Scientific Affairs in August 2002 and Director-General of the Disarmament, Nonproliferation and Science Department in August 2004.
Mr. Amano has extensive experience in disarmament, nonproliferation and nuclear energy policy and has been involved in the negotiation of major international instruments such as the NPT extension, the CTBT, the BTWC verification protocol, the amendment of the CCW and the ICOC. He represented Japan as a Governmental Expert on the UN Panel on Missiles in April 2001 and in the UN Expert Group on Disarmament and Nonproliferation Education in July 2001.
He has served in the Embassies of Japan in Vientiane, Washington and Brussels, in the Delegation of Japan to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and was Consul General of Japan in Marseille in 1997.