| Ambassador From1: | Japanese |
| Country1: | South Korea |
| Term Start1: | August 5, 2010 |
| Term End1: | October 2012 |
| Ambassador From2: | Japanese |
| Country2: | Kuwait |
| Term Start2: | 2007 |
| Term End2: | 2010 |
| Office3: | Japanese Consul-General in Honolulu |
| Term Start3: | 2002 |
| Term End3: | 2005 |
| Birth Date: | 18 December 1948 |
| Birth Place: | Tokyo, Japan |
| Native Name: | 武藤正敏 |
| Alma Mater: | Yokohama National University, Harvard University (Master)[1] |
is a Japanese diplomatic analyst and former diplomat who served as the Japanese ambassador to South Korea from 2010 to 2012.[2] He also served as the Japanese ambassador to Kuwait in the late 2000s and was the Japanese consul-general in Hawaii in the early 2000s.[3] Starting in 2015, he is also an author.
Muto was born in the Setagaya ward of Tokyo and graduated from Yokohama National University in 1972, where he studied economics. Muto also studied Korean and is reportedly fluent in the language. In 1975, he received a master's degree from the graduate school of Harvard University.
In 2005, Muto became an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to South Korea.
During the period from 2007 to 2010, Muto worked as Japanese Ambassador to Kuwait.
In August 2010, Muto became the Japanese ambassador to South Korea. He was briefly recalled by the Japanese government in protest of an August 2012 visit by the South Korean president to the Liancourt Rocks,[4] [5] which Japan claims but South Korea controls and administers. He eventually returned to his post. Muto's successor,, was nominated in September 2012, and Muto left the post in October 2012. Muto's posting to South Korea was his last official diplomatic position; he has since retired from diplomatic work and now works as a diplomatic analyst and critic.
In December 2016, Muto said of Korean comfort women claiming that "there is no evidence of a forced emigration of comfort women".[6]
In 2017, Muto published his third book 韓国人に生まれなくてよかった (English translation: Fortunately, I wasn't Born a Korean) that mainly focused on heavily criticizing Moon Jae-In as the recently then recently inaugurated president of South Korea but also criticizing various aspects of South Korea as a whole. In the book, he said described Moon as "the worst president ever elected in South Korea" and accused him of potentially using "anti-Japan" policies to boost his popularity. Muto additionally called Moon a “pro-North Korean and anti-Japanese populist”. He also claims Moon's "appeasement" policies toward North Korea would encourage North Korea's violence. He described Korean people as being swayed by "sentiment" rather than "logic". Talking of the then recent mass protests moves to impeach and impeachment of President Park Geun-hye as “an act explicitly showing the ugly face (of Koreans) who are swayed by sentiment than logic" and additionally claimed Park became a target due to her attempts to improve South Korea-Japan ties. Some Korean editorial writers considered the book as an "anti-Korean" book that is filled with anti-Korean sentiment.[7] [8] The book in Korea was also widely considered "anti-Korean".[9] Muto defended the title and content of the books saying that it wasn't meant to slander Korea or Koreans but simply a criticism of the politics, society, and economy of South Korea.[10]
In a 2019 interview, Muto heavily disagreed with South Korea's 2018 supreme court ruling where it ruled there is a liability of a Japanese company implicated in war crimes for compensation for forced labor mobilization: “The very fact that such a ruling could happen at this point is incomprehensible. There would never be a ruling like this in Japan”. Additionally in reaction to the court ruling he claimed of Korea's judiciary "There are many progressives in the judiciary, and it is said they are more likely to become judges…Therefore, there is a strong tendency for left-leaning decisions to be made."[11] In the same interview when asked "Do you think of yourself as a person who hates Korea or as a person who is friendly toward the country?". Muto answered "Today, Koreans might see me as a Korea hater, but I have both love and hate for the country."[9]