Tomoko Akane

is a Japanese jurist and current judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Japan, as well as the president of the court.

Professional career After graduating from the University of Tokyo, she became a public prosecutor in 1982. She later earned a Master of Science in Criminal Justice from Jacksonville State University in December 1990. During her career, she assumed posts at different levels of the justice system. She chose to become a public prosecutor due to the lack of opportunities the private sector provided for women and prosecutors, and because she wanted to be involved in serving justice to both victims and perpetrators. Akane was chief prosecutor of the Hakodate district in Hokkaido between 2010 and 2012, and became a prosecutor at the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office in 2012.

Akane was also a professor in criminal justice practice at both the Chukyo University Law School and the Nagoya University Law School between 2005 and 2009. She was the head of the International Cooperation Department (ICD) in the Japanese Ministry of Justice between 2009 and 2010. From 2014 to 2016, she was the director-general of the Research and Training Institute of the Ministry of Justice. From 2016 until joining the ICC, she served as Japan's ambassador for international judicial cooperation.

Judge at the International Criminal Court She was nominated as a candidate to the ICC in April 2016 by the Government of Japan and elected as a judge of the ICC on the 4 December 2017 by the Assembly of State Parties in New York. She assumed her post in March 2018 for a tenure of nine years. In July 2023, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs issued a warrant for her arrest.

In March 2024 she was elected President of the International Criminal Court for the term 2024–2027 by the judges of the ICC.

Personal life She is fluent in Japanese and English.