Asako Okai

Asako Okai is a Japanese diplomat and UN official currently serving as the ambassador of Japan in Bahrain. She started her career at the UN as assistant administrator at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and director for the UNDP Crisis Bureau, and became United Nations Assistant Secretary-General in 2018. During her time at the USDP, she was in charge of the UNDP’s corporate crisis-related work.

Personal life Asako Okai was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1966. Her father was a reporter for the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper. She attended school in Washington, DC from the fifth grade until the 11th grade when she returned to Japan.

She is married.

Education Okai completed her secondary education at Tokyo Gakugei University High School. In 1992, Okai completed a master’s of arts in art history at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University. She worked in divisions related to culture, economic cooperation, policy planning, and international cooperation.

In 2014, Okai became the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Japan in Sri Lanka and concurrently served in the Maldives. In 2016, she became the first female Consul General of Japan in Canada, holding the position in Vancouver.

United Nations

In 2018, she served as Minister at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations. Later, she took on roles as Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Assistant Administrator and Deputy Director-General of the United Nations Development Programme.

Okai also served as the second director of the Crisis Response Bureau of UNDP(former Crisis Response Unit), where she played a role in formulating cooperation plans with other agencies.