Mansfield Will Be Longest-Serving U.S. Envoy in Japan

U.S. Ambassador Mike Mansfield, already the United States’ senior diplomat in both age and years of service, on Saturday will become the longest-serving American envoy to Japan in history.

By Foreign Ministry calculations, it will mark the 83-year-old Mansfield’s 3,466th day in office, surpassing the record held by Joseph C. Grew, who was American ambassador from June 14, 1932, to Dec. 8, 1941, the day the United States declared war on Japan and severed diplomatic ties.

There is something of a technicality involved, however, as Grew remained at the Tokyo embassy for several more months, despite the war, until repatriated along with other Allied government diplomats in early 1942.

Mansfield was named to the Japan post in January, 1977, by President Jimmy Carter, and was reappointed in 1981 by President Reagan. He was a Democratic senator from Montana and had served as Senate majority leader.