Mitchell is a visiting researcher at the International Peace Research Institute of Meiji Gakuin University.[4] He is a regular contributor for The Japan Times[1] and an associate and contributing editor to The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus.[5] He is a special correspondent for the Okinawa Times.[4]Investigative journalism and human interest stories on environmental contamination and the impact of military herbicides such as Agent Orange on Okinawa are frequent subjects of his writing. He is the author of three Japanese language books about US military contamination: Tsuiseki: Okinawa no Karehazai (Chasing Agent Orange on Okinawa) (Koubunken, 2014), Tsuiseki: Nichibeichiikyoutei to Kichikougai (Military Contamination and the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement) (Iwanami Shoten, 2018) and Eien no Kagakubusshitsu: Mizu no PFAS Osen (Forever Chemicals: How PFAS Poisons Japan and the World) (Iwanami Shoten, 2020).[6][7] In 2020, Rowman & Littlefield published Mitchell's Poisoning the Pacific: The US Military's Secret Dumping of Plutonium, Chemical Weapons, and Agent Orange.[8]
The British media nicknamed him the "Bard of a Broken Country" for the poems he wrote after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The poems were gathered in a booklet called March and After and sold to support survivors of the disaster.[14][15][16]
Defoliated Island, a TV documentary about Mitchell's investigation into the contamination from the alleged usage of military herbicides in Japan, was winner of a 2012 award for excellence from the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan.[17]
In November 2022, Mitchell's co-directed documentary, “Nuchi nu Miji – Okinawa’s Water of Life”, received an Honorary Mention in the annual Galaxy Awards selected by Japan's Association of Broadcast Critics.[19]
Japan Congress of Journalists awarded "Nuchi nu Miji - Okinawa's Water of Life" an award for excellence in September 2023.[20]
^ abMitchell, Jon (18 July 2016). "特約通信員 ジョン・ミッチェル氏" [Authorized correspondent Mr. Jon Mitchell] (in Japanese). Retrieved 10 August 2016. Okinawa Times, Inc., has signed a special agreement contract with British journalist Jon Mitchell... Mitchell has covered environmental problems and issues of the US forces in Japan. Original articles will be written in English and published in Japanese. Jon Mitchell was born in Wales in 1974 and became a journalist. He came to Japan in 1998 and covers pollution problems at Okinawa US military bases. In 2015, he received the inaugural freedom of the press "Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan. Mitchell authored (Tracking) "Chasing Agent Orange on Okinawa" and is a Meiji Gakuin University International Peace Research Institute researcher.
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