Hailing from Japan, Yuri is fast-stream career diplomat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, mainly interested in the areas of security and government dissemination of information. After majoring in area studies in the former Soviet Union at the University of Tokyo, Yuri joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and was assigned to a department that dealt mainly with non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction. There she was responsible for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons in Syria. In addition, Yuri traveled to Vienna to organise bilateral talks between the IAEA and Japan. She was involved in governmental public relations activities after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, in order to transmit the correct information regarding the safety of ALPS treated water. Yuri then moved to Russia to study Russian for two years. These two years were extremely valuable life experiences, as she witnessed firsthand what life was like in Russia during the war in Ukraine.