Takeshi Akahori

Director-General and Ambassador for Global Issues, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Japan

Ambassador Takeshi Akahori is Director-General for Global Issues of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan since January 2022. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1989 upon graduation from the University of Tokyo Law School. He graduated from the French Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA) in 1991 and studied at the international relations graduate course (DHEI) of the French Institut national des Langues et de Civilisations Orientales, before serving in the Embassy in Paris.

Upon his return to Tokyo, Ambassador Takeshi worked on Southeast Asian affairs, UN policy, management, international law and North American affairs. He served as Counsellor at the Embassy in Washington, DC from 2004 to 2007. At Director level, he worked on Japan-Korea economic affairs, denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and cultural diplomacy. After serving as Executive Assistant to the Foreign Minister, he served as Director for Treaties from 2012 to 2015. He subsequently served as Political Minister of the Permanent Mission of Japan to the UN and led the Security Council team during Japan’s eleventh term in the Council (2016-2017).

Ambassador Takeshi was responsible for the organisation of the G20 Osaka Summit. From July 2019 he served as Deputy Assistant Minister for Foreign Policy and concurrently as Ambassador for International Security, UN Affairs and Cyber Policy. He was one of the 25 members of the Sixth UN Group of Governmental Experts on cybersecurity appointed by the UN Secretary-General. In August 2021, he was tasked to lead the Japanese delegation to COP26 (climate change) as Ambassador for Climate Change Negotiations).