The House | Meet Japanese Ambassador Hiroshi Suzuki, Who Loves Pubs, Paddington And The Premier League

Hiroshi Suzuki tastes some ‘original recipe’ Irn-Bru in Glasgow in 2025 (PA Images/Alamy)

7 min read17 min

Honey, they say, catches more flies than vinegar. A marmalade-loving bear is certainly proving a more powerful diplomatic tool than the démarche. It is hard to avoid Hiroshi Suzuki online even if one wanted. The 64-year-old posts a steady stream of love letters to the UK, many featuring his stuffed toy Paddington.

Britons aren’t easily praised – but there is something winning about Suzuki’s open-hearted commitment to the cause of sucking up. John Redwood, as Welsh secretary, was pilloried for his efforts at the national anthem – but when a Japanese ambassador gives it a good go, he’s a hero.

So, is there guile behind the blarney?

Meeting at his Kensington residence with views of a delightful garden in the full glories of spring, Ambassador Suzuki is as rhapsodic in person as online. Wearing a perfectly tailored three-piece suit, he says he struggles to pick out the favourite moment of his tour to date.

 “I have many favourite moments, but, you know, I love going to pubs. Enjoying a good local ale or bitter is always a huge joy to me.”

Born in Kyoto in 1961, Suzuki is approaching his 65th birthday, an unlikely age for a new social media star. In 1985, he joined the Japanese diplomatic service after a period of studying in the US.

On his mantelpiece sits a number of photos and keepsakes – one of Suzuki with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a black-and-white picture of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, and a signed rugby ball.

A close friend and political ally of Abe, who was assassinated in 2022, Suzuki worked closely with him for a number of years. The prime minister’s outlook clearly had a strong impact on his work.

Unlike most ambassadors, Suzuki has become a very recognisable presence in Westminster. Catapulted into fame from sharing videos of himself enjoying traditional British pubs, his spirited but far-from-pitch-perfect rendition of the Welsh national anthem endeared him to locals, given how few domestic politicians would dare try.

“I have been so fortunate to have become popular on [social media]. But the starting point for me is that the Japanese people love British culture and British people – Shakespeare, Beatles, Queen, or James Bond, Harry Potter, or the Premier League Football, or even having afternoon tea.”

“Japanese people just love the UK and British culture,” he says. “So, as an ambassador, as their representative, I want to express and convey my love and affection towards the British people and towards British culture. Fortunately, that has been picked up. And I have been so fortunate to be popular… and I’m helped by Paddington so much,” he adds, pointing to his stuffed Paddington Bear companion. Suzuki was described as “the Paddington Bear of ambassadors” in one newspaper column.

When we meet, he is looking forward to the Badminton Horse trials the following day; sure enough, afterwards he posts a picture of himself and his toy Paddington mascot standing by a fence on the course.

For his summer break last year, Suzuki hired a boat and sailed around the Sussex coast, which he described as an “amazing” experience. More recently, he spent his time off travelling around the Lake District and visited the Beatrix Potter museum in Windermere.

Despite the novel approach to his job, Suzuki has a traditional background. He’s been a member of the Japanese diplomatic service for over 40 years, having previously served in Tehran and Kabul – a far cry from the cosy and cultural work he currently finds himself doing. He speaks of how lucky he was to be able to join the diplomatic service, at a time when Japan was undergoing profound change.

Despite a short stint in the UK so far, Ambassador Suzuki has already proved influential. He says he’s often collared by MPs and peers when walking around Westminster off the back of his social media, which helps a great deal when making introductions – whether that’s on cherry blossom trees or global defence treaties.

British diplomats are already trying to emulate him, and he seems to have moved the wider Japanese diplomatic service too. International press have cited his social media strategy as part of a wider move in the Japanese diplomatic corps, with the new ambassador for France employing a similar strategy.

Hideo Suzuki – no relation – brings copies of Asterix instead of travel guides with him when travelling across France, poses as Tintin in pictures and professes his love of regional coin and stamp collecting. While he doesn’t seem to be as fond of a French red as the British ambassador is of a pint of bitter, he has posted his love of patisseries. Topical French magazine Paris Match described him as “the Japanese ambassador who makes us love… France”. We, Brits, clearly are not the only ones.

Suzuki’s face twinkles at the mention of the French ambassador. “He’s my best friend in the service, so I wish him all the best. He just took up his post in Paris recently. And he’s doing a great job.”

Suzuki is an adept diplomat. He quotes music and philosophers as easily as foreign trade statistics and investment numbers, always with a smile and always linking back to whatever message he’s trying to hammer home.

Japan tries to punch above its weight, and we want to learn from the UK because it is known to punch above its weight

On defence policy, an area becoming increasingly tense between Japan and the UK, he subtly encourages the government to push ahead with the shared Global Combat Air Programme between the MoD, Italy and Japan.

“I am hoping that in the near future, a long-term contract could be signed… Our plan is for the first fighter jet to take to the sky to defend our free skies in 2035, nine years from now.”

He reinforces the point moments later, after I press on apparent tensions between the parties over Britain’s delayed Defence Investment Plan holding up the deal. 

“We are fully committed to our original plan of 2035. Nothing will delay our original schedule.”

Later, he outlines his manifesto for the UK-Japanese relationship. Suzuki highlights the UK’s soft power as a unique skill.

“I’ve met a number of [Japanese footballers in the UK] and they all say the same thing in different words, which is ever since they were little they’ve dreamt of playing in the Premier League. The pitch for them is the pitch of their dreams. And it’s not just football – last year, the Japanese national ballet came. 

“And again, it’s the same thing – ever since they were little, it was their dream to perform at the Royal Ballet. If some Premier League teams could tour Japan, it would be a phenomenal success. Likewise, a potential tour of the Royal Ballet to Japan would be success guaranteed.”

He says that while the UK isn’t a superpower, he doesn’t believe it’s a middle power either.

“In my view, the UK is a global power… Japan tries to punch above its weight, and we want to learn from the UK because it is known to punch above its weight. The UK is an opinion-making leader. You have the BBC, you have the Financial Times, you have the Economist, just to name a few. The UK has the capability and the capacity to set the international agenda and rally countries across the world to achieve that goal. That’s the UK I see.”

Together, Suzuki believes the UK and Japan should push for a more free and open society.

“I want to see both the UK and Japan play a leadership role in making sure that our children and grandchildren’s generation will live in a free and open society, where they can pursue their own dreams and realise their full potential. [My generation] were given that chance. I wanted to become a diplomat and I was given a chance and, luckily, I succeeded in becoming a diplomat.

“That’s why we are extending so much assistance to Ukraine, because we want to make sure that fundamental principles would endure, principles like freedom, democracy, rule of law, human rights. 

“So, if our generation, if we do not stand up to defend those fundamental values, then our children and grandchildren in 50 years or a century later will ask us: ‘Where have you been, when all of this was happening?’”

He ends by quoting John Locke, the 17th-century philosopher whose liberalism clearly had a significant impact on Suzuki: “Wherever the rule of law ends, tyranny begins.”