Introducing Mr. Atsushi Koresawa

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to introduce Mr. Atsushi Koresawa to UN-Habitat. Atsushi has been appointed Director for UN-Habitat Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Fukuoka, Japan effective 16 June 2017. Before joining UN-Habitat, Atsushi served at various ministries and agencies of the Japanese government since 1988. His recent responsibilities include the Director for Management and Coordination at the Chubu Regional Development Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the Director for Search and Rescue Operations and International Cooperation at the Fire and Disaster Management Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and Director for Research at the Real Estate Transaction Improvement Organization. He has also served at several international organizations including UN-Habitat (Nairobi) (1991-1994), the OECD (Paris) (1997-2000) and the Asian Disaster Reduction Center (Kobe) (2009-2012).

Atsushi holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Engineering (social development) from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He has been engaged in national, regional and urban development, land and real estate management and disaster management both in Japan and internationally. In these fields, he has been practicing policy making and planning, project formulation and implementation, capacity building and undertaking policy studies. His recent publications include: “Towards a New Role for Spatial Planning (OECD)”, “Planning for An Ageing Society: Challenges for Territorial Development Policies (OECD)”, “Government’s Response to the Great East Japan Earthquake (Journal of Disaster Research)” and “Strengthening the Asian System for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR, Risk Returns)”.

Please join me in congratulating Atsushi on his appointment to this position. I kindly call on all colleagues to support him in his new assignment.

He can be reached at atsushi.koresawa@unhabitat.org

Best regards,

Raf Tuts, Director, Programme Division