| French Ambassador to Japan | |
|---|---|
since 2020 | |
| Inaugural holder | Jean Daridan |
| Formation | 1961 5th Republic |
The list of ambassadors of France to Japan began developing in the same year that the American Commodore Perry "opened" Japan's doors to the West.
Franco-Japanese diplomatic relations were initially established during the Second Empire of French history and the Edo period of Japanese history.
| Head of mission | Tenure begins | Tenure ends | French Head of State | Japanese emperor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros [1] | 1858 | 1858 | Napoleon III | Kōmei |
| Charles de Chassiron | 1858 | 1859 | ||
| Gustave Duchesne de Bellecourt [2] | 1859 | 1863 | ||
| Léon Roches [3] | 1863 | 1868 | ||
| Maxime Outrey | 1868 | 1871 | Meiji |
| Head of mission | Tenure begins | Tenure ends | French Head of State | Japanese emperor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paul Louis de Turenne | 1871 | 1872 | Adolphe Thiers | Meiji |
| 1872 | 1890 | Patrice Mac-Mahon Jules Grévy | ||
| Joseph Adam Sienkiewicz | 1890 | 1892 | Sadi Carnot | |
| Jules Harmand [4] | 1894 | 1905 | Jean Casimir-Perier Félix Faure Émile Loubet | |
| Gaston Raindre | 1905 | 1909 | Armand Fallières | |
| Auguste Gérard | 1909 | 1914 | Taishō | |
| Eugène Regnault | 1914 | 1918 | Raymond Poincaré | |
| Roger Maugras (chargé d'affaires) | 1918 | 1919 | ||
| Edmond Bapst | 1919 | 1921 | Paul Deschanel Alexandre Millerand Gaston Doumergue Paul Doumer | |
| Paul Claudel | 1921 | 1927 | ||
| Robert de Billy | 1927 | 1929 | Shōwa | |
| Alfred de Martel | 1929 | 1933 | ||
| Fernand Pila | 1935 | 1936 | Albert Lebrun Henri Pétain | |
| Charles Arsène-Henry | 1937 | 1943 |
| Head of mission | Tenure begins | Tenure ends | French Head of State | Japanese emperor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zinovi Pechkoff [5] | 1946 | 1950 | Vincent Auriol | Shōwa |
| Maurice Dejean [6] | 1950 | 1953 | ||
| Daniel Lévi | 1953 | 1956 | ||
| Armand Bérard | 1956 | 1959 | René Coty |
| Head of mission | Tenure begins | Tenure ends | French Head of State | Japanese emperor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jean Daridan | 1959 | 1961 | Charles de Gaulle | Shōwa |
| Étienne Dennery | 1961 | 1964 | ||
| François Missoffe | 1964 | 1966 | ||
| Louis de Guiringaud | 1966 | 1972 | Georges Pompidou | |
| François Lefebvre de Laboulaye | 1972 | 1975 | Valéry Giscard d'Estaing | |
| Jean-Pierre Brunet | 1975 | 1977 | ||
| Louis Dauge | 1977 | 1979 | ||
| Xavier Daufresne de la Chevalerie | 1979 | 1982 | François Mitterrand | |
| André Ross | 1982 | 1985 | ||
| Gilbert Pérol | 1985 | 1987 | ||
| Bernard Dorin | 1987 | 1991 | Akihito | |
| Loïc Hennekinne | 1991 | 1993 | ||
| Jean-Bernard Ouvrieu | 1993 | 1998 | Jacques Chirac | |
| Maurice Gourdault-Montagne | 1998 | 2002 | ||
| Bernard Faubournet de Montferrand [7] | 2002 | 2006 | ||
| Gildas Le Lidec [8] | 2006 | 2007 | ||
| Philippe Faure [9] | 2007 | 2011 | Nicolas Sarkozy | |
| Christian Masset | 2011 | 2014 | Francois Hollande | |
| Thierry Dana | 2014 | 2017 | ||
| Laurent Pic | 2017 | 2020 | Emmanuel Macron | |
| Philippe Setton | 2020 | Naruhito |