Arfiya Eri, a member of Japan’s House of Representatives, has joined the United States-Japan Foundation Board of Trustees.
Eri’s historic candidacy in the April 2023 parliamentary election drew worldwide attention. A Japanese national of Uyghur and Uzbek descent, she is the first Uyghur woman to be elected to any legislature in any nation, according to the World Uyghur Congress. At 35 years old, she is currently the youngest woman in Japan’s parliament, where the average age is 55 and only 10% of the House of Representatives is female.
In 2023, Time magazine named Eri one of its 100 next-generation global leaders.
Before entering Japanese politics, Eri spent extensive time in the U.S., working at the United Nations in New York after earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service in Washington, DC. She is fluent in Japanese, English, and Uyghur, and speaks four other languages in varying degrees of fluency: Chinese, Uzbek, Turkish, and Arabic.
Eri is a fellow in the Foundation’s US-Japan Leadership Program, joining the network in 2018.
“Arfiya is an inspiring symbol, a pioneer, for a new generation of Japanese leadership,” said USJF board Chair Lawrence K. Fish. “More than that, she is an energetic, creative thinker about the future of Japanese society, about U.S.-Japan relations, and the role that organizations such as ours can play in helping shape a better future for both countries. We look forward to working with her as we chart our new path for greater impact on both sides of the Pacific.”
“I am truly honored and humbled to join the USJF Board, and look forward to learning from all colleagues, as well as contributing to its ever more important work in strengthening US-Japan relations across sectors and industries,” said Eri. “The alliance of our two countries — two of the strongest democratic economies in the world — has never been more vital against the backdrop of shrinking space globally for human rights, civil rights, and democracy, as well as evident and pressing threats to rule-based international order. I also look forward to working with the Board to further enhance its efforts on diversity, inclusion, and representation across its programs on both sides of the Pacific.”
Born in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, Eri became a Japanese citizen at the age of 10, in 1999. Her family temporarily moved to China for her father’s work, and she graduated from the American school in Guangzhou.
After earning her MA in Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies, Eri joined the Bank of Japan, where she worked from 2012-2016. She served at the UN from 2016 through 2022, before returning to Japan to run for political office.
Eri represents the 5th District of Chiba Prefecture, which includes the cities of Urayasu and Ichikawa, just outside Tokyo.
In addition to Chair Fish, Eri joins on the USJF board: Vice Chair Tak Niinami, Wendy Cutler, Richard E. Dyck, Colleen Hanabusa, James M. Kondo, Craig M. Mullaney, Richard J. Samuels, Keiko Tashiro, Donna Tanoue, and Takeshi Ueshima.
The United States-Japan Foundation was started in 1980 with a mission of improving relations between the two countries. It has since given out more than $100 million in grants and oversees the US-Japan Leadership Program with a network of 500 fellows from the two countries.
Contact: info@us-jf.org