14 Facts About Hisashi Owada

Hisashi Owada is a Japanese former jurist, diplomat and law professor.

Hisashi Owada served as a judge on the International Court of Justice from 6 February 2003 until 7 June 2018, and was president of the court from 2009 to 2012.

Hisashi Owada is the father of Empress Masako and the father-in-law of the reigning Emperor of Japan, Naruhito.

Hisashi Owada received sponsorship from the Foreign Ministry to study at Trinity College, Cambridge in the United Kingdom where he earned a law degree in 1959 and later a doctorate of philosophy.

Hisashi Owada served as the Bright International Jurist-in-Residence at the University of Hawaii's William S Richardson School of Law in 2010.

Hisashi Owada has received honorary degrees from Keiwa College, Banaras Hindu University, and Waseda University.

In 1988, Hisashi Owada was appointed Japanese ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris.

Hisashi Owada served for a year before returning to Japan, working first as Deputy Minister and from 1991 to 1993 as Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs.

From 1999 to 2000 Hisashi Owada then served as senior adviser to the President of the World Bank.

Hisashi Owada was president of the Japan Institute of International Affairs and adviser to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs until 2003.

Hisashi Owada received 170 out of 192 votes in the General Assembly on the first round, more than any other candidate, and 14 out of 15 votes in the Security Council on the first round.

Hisashi Owada had been nominated by the Japanese national group of the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

Hisashi Owada is currently a member of the Whitney R Harris World Law Institute's International Council, and a member of the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative Advisory Council, a project of the Harris Institute at Washington University School of Law in St Louis to establish the world's first treaty on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity.

In 1962, at age 30, Hisashi Owada married 25 year-old Yumiko Egashira, introduced to him by a mutual friend and later employer Takeo Fukuda.