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Mr. Akasaka was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1948.
He joined the OECD on 25 August 2003 where his present responsibilities include development, environment, sustainable development and partnerships with other international organizations.
Mr. Akasaka has been closely involved throughout his career with the work of multilateral organisations.
He was Deputy Director-General in the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Multilateral Co-operation Department from 1997 to 2000, participating as one of his country’s top negotiators in the Kyoto Conference on Climate Change in December 1997 and in various international conferences.
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He was Japan’s Ambassador to the U.N. between 2000 and 2001, and he has also held posts at the Secretariat of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the precursor of the World Trade Organisation, from 1988 to 1991, and at the World Health Organisation, from 1993 to 1997. He served as a member of a GATT panel on trade dispute.
He held the post of Consul-General of Japan in Sao Paulo, a city with the largest Japanese community outside Japan. He combined his post with a role as a member of the Bureau for the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development, preparing for and participating in the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg as Vice-Chairman of its Preparatory Committee.
Mr. Akasaka joined the Japanese Foreign Ministry in April 1971, immediately after graduating from Kyoto University, where he obtained a B.A. degree in Law. From 1972 to 1974, he was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained a B.A. and M.A. in Economics as part of the Ministry training programme.
He is the co-author of books entitled The GATT and the Uruguay Round Negotiations (in Japanese) and The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (in English). He has also written many articles on trade, the environment and sustainable development in Japanese journals and newspapers.
Mr. Akasaka speaks fluent English and French and has a knowledge of Portuguese.
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