SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. – ,The Honorable Masuo Nishibayashi, Consul General of Japan in Boston, will speak on "The Current U.S.-Japan Relationship: Focusing on Iraq and North Korea" on Tuesday, April 22, at 4 PM in the Willits-Hallowell Center at Mount Holyoke College. The event is free, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible. A reception will follow the lecture.

Nishibayashi served in Tokyo as deputy director general of the Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Bureau before becoming Consul General in Boston in August 2002. He is a native of Tokyo who joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1975. His assignments have included Malaysia, Geneva, New York, and Singapore.

The talk is sponsored by the Asian studies program, the politics department, and the Five College Center for East Asian Studies.