Kiyotaka Akasaka

Who is Kiyotaka Akasaka?

Kiyotaka Akasaka is the former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information. He was appointed to the position by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in February 2007. Akasaka also served as Coordinator for Multilingualism in the UN Secretariat. He completed his appointment at the UN in March 2012 and was succeeded by Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal of Austria.

A career diplomat, Mr. Akasaka has served several multilateral organizations in different capacities. From 2003 to 2007, he was the Deputy Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, where he was responsible for issues on development, environment, sustainable development and building and maintaining partnership with other international organizations.

From 1997 to 2000, he served as Deputy Director-General in the Multilateral Cooperation Department of the Japanese Foreign Ministry. He acted as one of the top negotiators in the Kyoto Conference on Climate Change in December 1997.

From 2000 to 2001, he served as the Japanese Ambassador to the United Nations. Previously, he worked at the Secretariat of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the World Health Organization.