HE Ms Tania Tupou, Tonga's first Resident Ambassador to Japan, started in her new post at the Government of Tonga's new embassy located at Minato-ku in Tokyo, on October 1.

The Tonga Embassy will help to advance the bilateral and multilateral cooperation between the two countries. The office will also offer consular services to the large Tongan community living in Japan, according to the Minsitry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Nuku'alofa, who described it as a "historical milestone in the longstanding friendly and cordial relations that happily exist between the Royal and Imperial Households and the Governments of the Kingdom of Tonga and Japan."

Dr T. Suka Mangisi the Deputy Secretary for Foreign Affairs said the mission has only one posted diploma, the Ambassador, but there were also provisions for recruiting of local staff for the office.

Tonga's first Ambassador to Japan was King Tupou VI who as Crown Prince was a non-resident ambassador.

Career

Tania takes up her new appointment having been a Deputy Private Secretary to His Majesty and "Goldstick-in-Waiting" since 2009, in Nuku'alofa.

She served as a Consul at Tonga's Consulate-General in San Fransisco from 1996-2004, and was a Manager/Senior Advisor of the Joint Office for the Commonwealth Permanent Missions to the United Nations in New York, from 2005-09.

Tania began her career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1991. She was seconded for a peacekeeping duty to the Tonga Defence Services serving as Lieutenant in the South Pacific Peacekeeping Force to Bougainville in 1994.

Tonga's embassy is located at Iikura IT Building 1-9-10, Azabudai, Minato-ku.