{{short description|Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Japan}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}} {{Use British English|date=March 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = Her Excellency | name = Julia Longbottom | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CMG}} | image = Ms Julia Longbottom CMG.jpg | office = British Ambassador to Japan | monarch = Elizabeth II<br>Charles III | term_start = March 2021 | term_end = | prime_minister = Boris Johnson<br>Liz Truss<br>Rishi Sunak<br>Keir Starmer | predecessor = Paul Madden | successor = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1963|7|13|df=y}} | birth_place = | spouse = {{marriage|Richard Sciver|1990}} | children = 3, including Nat Sciver-Brunt | alma_mater = Jesus College, Cambridge }}
'''Julia Longbottom''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CMG}} (born 13 July 1963) is a British diplomat and the current Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Japan since March 2021.<ref name="gov.uk bio">{{cite web |title=Julia Longbottom |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/people/julia-longbottom |website=GOV.UK |access-date=3 March 2021 |language=en}}</ref> She is the first woman ambassador to represent the United Kingdom in Tokyo.<ref name="Madden farewell" />
==Education== Longbottom was educated at Bradford Girls' Grammar School in West Yorkshire, and Jesus College, Cambridge, where she gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in French and German. She is also educated in Japanese, Polish and Dutch. In the first she has attained full fluency.<ref name="LinkedIn">{{cite web |title=Profile of Julia Longbottom |url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-longbottom-41200a17/ |website=LinkedIn |access-date=3 March 2021}}</ref>
==Career==
===Early career=== Longbottom joined the Diplomatic Service at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) immediately after graduating from Cambridge in 1986. She then spent her first two years on placements at the United Nations in New York and the European Commission in Brussels. Between 1990 and 1993, she spent her first period in Tokyo as the Political Second Secretary at the British Embassy to Japan. In 1994, she moved to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Hong Kong Department and worked as the Section Head for Nationality and Immigration until the handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China in 1997. She was then appointed as the Head of Political and EU Section at the Embassy of the United Kingdom in the Hague.<ref name="gov.uk bio" />
===Recent career=== In 2012, Longbottom returned to Tokyo where she served as Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Tokyo until summer 2016. She then returned to the UK as the FCO's Director for Consular Services, along with a brief period serving as the director of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's Coronavirus Task Force.<ref name="gov.uk bio" />
In December 2020, it was announced that Longbottom would replace the retiring Paul Madden as the British Ambassador to Japan.<ref name="appointment">{{cite web |title=Change of Her Majesty's Ambassador to Japan: Julia Longbottom |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/change-of-her-majestys-ambassador-to-japan--3 |website=GOV.UK |access-date=3 March 2021 |language=en}}</ref> She officially assumed the role in March 2021.<ref name="Madden farewell">{{cite web |last1=Madden |first1=Paul |title=Farewell to Japan |url=https://blogs.fcdo.gov.uk/paulmadden/2021/02/22/farewell-to-japan/ |website=Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs |publisher=Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office |access-date=3 March 2021 |date=22 February 2021}}</ref>
On August 7, 2024, Longbottom announced she would not attend a Nagasaki memorial to victims of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of the city because the mayor of Nagasaki did not invite representatives of the Israeli government.<ref name="Nagasaki Memorial">{{cite news | author =<!--not stated--> | title = U.K., U.S. ambassadors to skip Nagasaki peace ceremony | url = https://www.asahi.com/sp/ajw/articles/15379321 | work = The Asahi Shimbun | location = Tokyo, Japan | date = 7 August 2024 | access-date = 7 August 2024 }} </ref>
==Personal life== Longbottom married Richard Sciver at Bolton Abbey in Wharfedale, North Yorkshire, on 28 December 1990 while on leave from her position in Tokyo.<ref name="twitter 1">{{cite tweet|user=JuliaLongbottom|title=This day 30 years ago we came home from #Japan to be married at a wintry #BoltonAbbey in #Yorkshire surrounded by wonderful family and friends.|number=1343673000688820225|date=28 December 2020|language=en}}</ref> Together, Longbottom and Sciver maintain a UK residence in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. They have three adult children: two daughters and one son.<ref name="gov.uk bio" /> The elder daughter, Nat Sciver-Brunt,<ref>{{cite web |title=Women's World Cup to be Live Streamed! |url=https://cricket.or.jp/en/archives/5785 |website=Japan Cricket Association |access-date=26 July 2021 |date=24 June 2017}}</ref> is captain of the England women's cricket team.
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
{{s-start}} {{s-dip}} {{s-bef|before=Paul Madden}} {{s-ttl | title = British Ambassador to <br> Japan | years = 2021–present }} {{s-inc}} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Longbottom, Julia}} Category:1963 births Category:Living people Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Japan Category:Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:20th-century British diplomats Category:21st-century British diplomats Category:People educated at Bradford Girls' Grammar School