Ireland Opens New Embassy Building in Japan; Visiting Irish Prime Minister Pledges Commitment to Bilateral Ties

By Benjamin Harris / Japan News Staff Writer

15:44 JST, July 3, 2025

A ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the official opening of Ireland House, the new Irish embassy building, was held in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward on Wednesday.

Before cutting the ribbon together, Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Hisayuki Fujii, state minister of foreign affairs, both made speeches expressing the two countries’ commitment to further improving their bilateral relations. Also in attendance were Irish Ambassador to Japan Damien Cole and Princess Hisako of Takamado.

The renewal of the Irish embassy was described by Martin as one of the “flagship projects of the [Irish] government’s global strategy” and a “physical symbol of [Ireland’s] long-term commitment to a deep bilateral relationship with Japan.”

Acting as the Japanese government’s representative at the ceremony, Fujii made his speech in both Japanese and English. He described Japan and Ireland as “partners with shared ambitions.”

Martin is in Japan for a four-day visit, having arrived on Tuesday. He met with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Wednesday, during which he said they “reaffirmed our [two countries’] commitment to continue to take our relations and exchanges to a new, higher level over the next decade.” The commitment is based on the 2022 Joint Leader’s Statement issued by Martin and then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Martin was set to visit the Osaka-Kansai Expo on Thursday and then travel to Hiroshima on Friday to mark 80 years since the city’s atomic bombing.

Interweaving of cultures

Ireland House Tokyo is a five-minute walk from JR Yotsuya Station and covers about 2,700 square meters. Its construction has been described as one of the largest single capital investments ever made overseas by the Irish government.

The building’s design was chosen through a competition run by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland in 2019, with the winning proposal coming from Dublin-based architecture firm Henry J Lyons.

Under the theme “Irish stone meets Japanese stone,” the building incorporates limestone from Kilkenny, Ireland, and granite from the Setouchi islands. Elements of both Irish caislean tower houses and traditional Japanese machiya townhouses have been interwoven to symbolize the expanding relationship between the two countries.