Iriye Akira (入江 昭?) (born October 20, 1934) is a historian of American diplomatic history especially United States-East Asian relations, and international issues. He is the only Japanese citizen ever to serve as President of the American Historical Association, and has also served as president for the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. In 2005, he was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Star, one of Japan's highest civilian honors. He was also awarded Japan's Yoshida Shigeru Prize for best book in public history.
Akira Iriye was born in Tokyo, in 1934 and graduated from Seikei High School. He received a B.A. from Haverford College in 1957, and a Ph.D. in History from Harvard in 1961. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1974. Iriye began as an Instructor and Lecturer in history at Harvard, then taught at the University of California at Santa Cruz, the University of Rochester, and the University of Chicago before accepting an appointment as Professor of History at Harvard University in 1989, where he became Charles Warren Professor of American History in 1991. He was Director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies from 1991 through 1995.
Since retiring in 2005, he has taught at Waseda University, Ritsumeikan University, and the University of Illinois as a guest professor.