JNTO’s NY office appoints Susumu Matsumoto as executive director
Susumu Matsumoto has arrived in New York from Japan to head the New York office of the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), succeeding Michiaki Yamada.
Matsumoto was born in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, and graduated from the Faculty of Law of Keio University in 2005. He began his government service with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in 2005. In 2007-2009, he was assigned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in 2009-2010, he worked with the Japan Coast Guard.
He studied in California from 2010 to 2012, earning his MPP (Master of Public Policy) degree at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs.
“It is an honour to be back in the United States, and to represent my homeland in New York,” said Matsumoto, “especially as my appointment comes during this extremely important U.S.-Japan Tourism Year.”
From 2012 to 2014, he worked for the Tohoku Earthquake recovery project. In both 2017 and 2023, he was a part of the Japanese G7 host committees for the Transport Ministers’ meetings; at the G7 meeting in 2023, he acted as Japan’s liaison with U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg. From 2017 until his appointment to New York, he continued his work with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and with the inbound tourism promotional department of Mie Prefecture.
