Tarumi Hideo (born 1961) is a Japanese diplomat and specialist on China who served as Japan’s ambassador to the People’s Republic of China from 2020 to 2023. He is also a professor at Ritsumeikan University. After graduating from Kyoto University’s Faculty of Law, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1985 and studied Chinese at Nanjing University. His diplomatic assignments included posts in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taipei, and he later served as director of the ministry’s China and Mongolia Division, director-general of the Consular Affairs Bureau, and chief of protocol and administration as deputy vice-minister. Over several decades, he developed networks among Chinese government officials, Communist Party figures, and intellectuals while working on political analysis and Japan–China relations. “Nicchu Gaiko Hiroku: Tarumi Hideo Chugoku Taishi no Tatakai” (A Confidential Record of Japan–China Diplomacy) recounts his diplomatic career and examines relations under Xi Jinping, China’s assertive “wolf warrior” diplomacy, and unofficial channels of negotiation. Coauthored with Kanehara Nobukatsu, “Chugoku Kyosanto ga Katarenai Nicchu Kindai Gendaishi” reconsiders modern Sino-Japanese history beyond the Chinese Communist Party’s official narrative. In “Chikara no Jidai o Ikinuku Senryakuteki Shiko,” Tarumi discusses the diplomatic and security strategy Japan requires amid intensifying great-power competition. He is also a photographer whose work documents landscapes and everyday life across China.
