Tommy Hamamoto

Tetsuo “Tommy” Hamamoto serves as the director in Japan for the U.S. Grains Council, a non-profit organization that promotes the global use of U.S. barley, corn, sorghum and related products including ethanol and distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS). In this capacity, he identifies and addresses all relevant trade, technical and policy-related factors relevant to building and maintaining the market for U.S. grains and co-products in Japan.

Before joining the Council in 2008, Hamamoto worked for Monsanto Company, serving as public affairs lead of Japan since 2006. He was responsible for public affairs activities related to agricultural biotechnology and its’ products.

From 1997 to 2006, Hamamoto served as an agricultural specialist at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo where he was in charge of coordinating rules and regulations between the United States and Japan on food safety and standards, including chemical residues and biotechnology. Prior to that, he was a microbiology research scientist at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) for 11 years, working on industry application for genetic engineering using bacteria.

Hamamoto received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Tokyo in agricultural chemistry, and a Ph.D. from the Graduate School, University of Tokyo in microbiology.

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