MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND FOREIGN TRADE
2 Port Royal Street, Kington
MEDIA RELEASE
August 7, 2026
Foreign Minister Johnson Smith Appoints Ariel Bowen as
Jamaica’s Ambassador to Japan
KINGSTON, Jamaica: Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Honourable Kamina
Johnson Smith, has appointed Mrs. Ariel Bowen as Jamaica’s seventh Ambassador to Japan.
Mrs. Bowen is a career diplomat with more than 30 years’ experience in the Foreign Service. She succeeds Ambassador Shorna-Kay Richards and currently serves as Officer-in-Charge at the Consulate-General of Jamaica in New York, a post she has held since November last year.
“Mrs. Bowen brings to this assignment broad diplomatic experience and a deep understanding of the Ministry’s work and Jamaica’s foreign policy priorities. I am confident that she will build on the work of Ambassador Richards and further advance the longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship between Jamaica and Japan”, said Minister Johnson Smith while commending Mrs. Bowen on her appointment.
An alumna of Holy Childhood High School, the Ambassador-designate holds a Master of Science in Government, specialising in International Relations, from the University of the West Indies, Mona, and a Bachelor of Science in Social Sciences from London South Bank University.
Over the course of her career, Mrs. Bowen has gained wide-ranging experience in bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, economic affairs, consular services, protocol and diaspora engagement. Prior to her current assignment, Mrs. Bowen served as Under-Secretary (Acting) in the Ministry’s Diaspora, Protocol and Consular Division, with responsibility for managing the Division’s operations and overseeing the development and implementation of related policies. She previously held the posts of Senior Director in the Division and Director of the Consular Affairs Department. She has also played a central role in the delivery of several major initiatives led by the Ministry, including the Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conferences, the inaugural Government Protocol Conference in 2023, and the Ministry’s annual Diplomatic Week activities.
Her overseas assignments have included service as Minister-Counsellor with responsibility for trade, economic and diaspora affairs at the Embassy of Jamaica in Washington, D.C. (2012–2017); Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Jamaica to the United Nations (UN) in New York (2004 2008), where she represented Jamaica on social and humanitarian issues as a Third Committee expert; and Attaché at the Jamaican High Commission in London (1989–1998).
During her tenure at the United Nations, Mrs. Bowen helped to coordinate the 2007 Commemoration of the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, an important feature of which was the establishment of the Permanent Memorial to the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, unveiled in March 2015 at the visitors’ entrance of UN Headquarters in New York.
Jamaica and Japan established diplomatic relations in 1964 and continue to cooperate in areas including trade and investment, education, culture, maritime affairs, technical cooperation and development.
Mrs. Bowen is expected to assume office in Tokyo in a few weeks.
