US Ambassador Schieffer to visit NMI

Newly assigned U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Thomas Schieffer will serve as the federal government’s highest ranking official to attend the Japanese imperial couple’s two-day visit to Saipan this month.

Gov. Juan N. Babauta, who met with the ambassador in Tokyo last week in relation to airline services in the CNMI, said that Schieffer and his wife will arrive on Saipan a few days before the royal couple’s visit.

“We’re very happy to have them here on the island. The ambassador and his wife are arriving a couple of days before the royal couple. He is going to be the highest ranking U.S. government official,” said the governor.

Their majesties, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, are set to visit Saipan on June 27 and 28 “to mourn and pay tribute to those who died in the war and to pray for world peace.”

The visit marks the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.

The imperial couple has reportedly long expressed a strong desire to visit Saipan, the site of fierce fighting between Japanese and U.S. forces during World War II.

Saipan is where the Japanese government had erected the Memorial Monument of the War Dead as one of the main overseas memorials.

Schieffer, 57, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Australia from Sept. 29, 2001 to February 2005, is said to be a close friend of President Bush.

Born in Texas, Schieffer, who is also a lawyer, handled corporate issues focusing on investments and oil and gas.

In 1989, Schieffer was reportedly an investor in the partnership led by George W. Bush and Edward W. (Rusty) Rose that bought the Texas Rangers Baseball Club. He was designated as partner-in-charge of Ballpark Development in 1990 and president in 1991.

When Bush was elected governor of Texas in 1994, Schieffer assumed Bush’s duties as general partner. The partnership eventually sold the team in June 1998.

Schieffer grew up in Fort Worth attending public schools. He went to the University of Texas in Austin where he majored in government and minored in history. He received a bachelor’s degree in 1970. He also received a master’s degree in international relations 1972. He took up law and was admitted to the state Bar of Texas in October 1979.

In 1972, he was elected to the Texas House of Representatives at age 25 and served three terms.

Schieffer has one brother, Bob Schieffer, a journalist, who is the Chief Washington Correspondent for CBS News as well as the host for CBS’s Face the Nation. His sister, Sharon Mayes, is an educator.