CHAPTER 4  Japanese People Active in the International Community and Roles of Diplomacy

(*20) A program under which aspiring international civil servants are dispatched, in principle for two years, to international organizations at the expense of the Japanese government to enable the candidates to gain work experience and increase the likelihood of them becoming full employees of international organizations in the future. As of January 2006, approximately 80 persons were participating in this program.

(*21) Japanese elected to head international organizations by the organizations' member states include Matsuura Koichiro, Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and Utsumi Yoshio, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU; resigned December 2006), as well as Tanaka Nobuo, Executive Director-elect of the International Energy Agency (IEA), who will assume office in September 2007.