Cooperation with International Organizations (UNESCO,UNU)

October 24, 2024
Japanese

1. Establishment, Location:

  • November 16, 1945　UNESCO Constitution adopted in London
  • November 4, 1946　UNESCO Constitution comes into effect. Headquarters located in Paris

(Japan joins UNESCO on July 2, 1951)

2. Purpose:

The purpose of the Organization is to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture, in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations. (UNESCO Constitution , Article 1, Paragraph 1.)

3. Number of Member StatesOpen a New Window

194 Member States and 12 Associate Members

4. Amount of Regular Budget (for two years):

  • 2024-2025: USD 1,804,447,299

5. Scale of Assessments of Major Countries (2024 Budget):

USA (22％), China (15.364%), Japan (8.091%), Germany (6.155%), UK (4.407%), France 4.349%)

6. Japan's Share of Contributions:

  • 2024: Approximately 3,800 million yen

7. Secretariat:

(1) Director-General

Audrey Azoulay (former Minister of Culture and Communication of France)

Ms. Azoulay is the tenth Director-General. She was appointed to a four-year term in November 2017, and reelected to another four-year term in November 2021.

Irina Bokova (former Foreign Minister of Bulgaria)

Ms. Bokova is the ninth Director-General. She was appointed to a four-year term in November 2009, and reelected to another four-year term until November 2017.

Matsuura Koichiro (former Ambassador of Japan to France)

Mr. Matsuura is the eighth Director-General. He was appointed to a six-year term in November 1999 and reelected to a four-year term (from November 2005 to November 2009).

(2) Secretariat Staff (from all sources of funding at all levels, as of December 2023)

  • Number of staff: 2,462
  • Japanese staff: 50

(Note: UNESCO uses a formal geographical distribution mechanism and calculates the number of staff quotas for each Member State as desirable number of staff (professional level and above), for posts for which personnel costs funded from its regular budget. As of December 2023, Japan has 34 staff members in the target posts, exceeding the desirable number of staff(18-30).)

8. Outline of Projects:

International intellectual cooperation (setting of international rules, international conferences of experts, liaison of international academic projects, information exchange, publications, etc.) in fields including education, science, culture and communication, as well as support projects in developing countries.

9. Japan's Contributions:

  • (1) UNESCO was the first UN organization that Japan joined after World War II. This membership in 1951 marked Japan’s return to the international community after the war.

    Today, Japan shoulders the third largest share of the UNESCO Regular Budget. In addition to its financial contribution to UNESCO, Japan has directly contributed to the administrative operation of UNESCO as a member of the Executive Board of UNESCO for many years.
  • (2) Furthermore, Japan is cooperating with various UNESCO activities. In 2018, the new “Japanese Funds-in-trust for UNESCO Programme” was made, based on the three existing Funds-in-trust, namely (the UNESCO Japanese Trust Fund for the Preservation of the World Cultural Heritage, the UNESCO Japanese Trust Fund for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage and the UNESCO Japanese Trust Fund for Capacity-Building of Human Resources). Under the new Funds-in-Trust, Japan has supported important projects which serve its national interest among all UNESCO programmes (education, culture, science, communications and information, natural science etc.) not limited to its previous areas of cooperation.

    Furthermore, in order to support UNESCO projects for the promotion of education and the capacity-building of human resources in developing countries, Japan established Funds-in-Trust within UNESCO such as the Japanese Funds-in-Trust for the Promotion of Education in Asia and the Pacific Region (since 2009) and the Japanese Funds-in-Trust for Scientific Programme on Global Challenges in Asia and the Pacific Region (since 2007).
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