Department spends €7.7m on site for new Tokyo embassy

THE Department of Foreign Affairs has splashed out €7.7m on a site for a new embassy and residence in the Japanese capital Tokyo.

It follows significant controversy over Irish Mail on Sunday revelations about the current residence being rented at €46,000 a month.

The combined site was purchased from the Japanese government, which had previously offered Ireland a plot of land in a cut-price deal on condition that it be used for diplomatic purposes.

It means the department will finally be able to extricate itself from eye-watering Tokyo property lease deals.

A 720-square metre residence for the Irish Ambassador to Japan is costing approximately €46,000 each month, according to the latest figures.

Separately, the department pays €26,000 a month for its chancery building. The combined Tokyo rent bill comes to €1.1m annually. That includes €143,000 paid out each year in rent for other diplomatic staff based in the city.

The new ‘Ireland House’ will combine a residence and embassy as well as offices for Enterprise Ireland and the IDA. Three-year leases on the existing chancery and official residence were signed last year and will expire in 2020. The lease was expected to cost €1.69m over 36 months.

The plot of land, in Tokyo’s fashionable Yotsuya District, was the single largest purchase made by the department last year, according to records released under Freedom of Information legislation.

The purchase price of €7.739m is understood to be well below market value due to the deal with the Tokyo government.

It is planned the development will be completed by 2020 and will showcase Irish designers.

‘The new building will be designed for flexible and efficient use,’ said the department, ‘to maximise shared spaces and ensuring the ability to facilitate many different types of events promoting and showcasing Ireland.’

The department has been looking at the possibility of developing an ‘Ireland House’ in Japan for several years because of internal concerns and adverse publicity over the high rents it is paying.

Officials were unhappy with their ‘inadequate’ embassy building because of its age, the fact it only had external staircases, and because it shakes considerably during earthquakes. An internal briefing document suggested purchasing a new property could pay for itself in around 15 years by converting rental payments into a ‘long term fixed asset’.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said: ‘Japan is a very significant market for Ireland as the country’s 11th largest trading partner.’

The MoS previously revealed that the residence in Tokyo is the most expensive of Ireland’s diplomatic missions abroad.

In 2016, Ireland’s ambassador to Japan, Anne Barrington, complained to the Irish Times that her husband’s privacy had been violated after the MoS revealed he used the residence as a business address, suggesting she might make a complaint to the Press Ombudsman. This still has not been made.

Her husband’s business website listed the address of the residence. The Irish Times followed up their article with a clarification that read: ‘An article in last Thursday’s edition stated that Ed Miliano, husband of Anne Barrington… is a designer and illustrator. Mr Miliano is an artist.’

‘Designed for flexible and efficient use’