The United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, UNAFEI in short, has a long history and is the oldest institution of the UN Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme Network (PNI). UNAFEI was established in 1962 by an agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Japan.

For over 60 years, UNAFEI has conducted more than 200 training programmes, with the participation of appropriately 6800 criminal justice practitioners from 144 jurisdictions. Many UNAFEI alumni have gone on to hold various high positions in their respective countries. With its unique programme methodologies, UNAFEI has succeeded in attracting participants from criminal justice agencies around the world, such as police officers, prosecutors, judges, correction officers, probation officers and so forth, and the strong and wide personal network of UNAFEI alumni has become a great asset for this institute and the international community. I am confident that UNAFEI contributes greatly in the promotion of international cooperation in the field of criminal justice. For more detailed information concerning our programmes and various activities, please see our website.

As for my professional background, I was appointed as a public prosecutor in 1995. Thereafter, I have engaged in investigation and prosecution in several district and other higher offices of the Japanese prosecution service, which includes my recent work as the Chief Prosecutor of the Akita District Public Prosecutors Office (2024-2026). Other than these experiences in practice, I held several offices in various Japanese governmental and other agencies, in the capacity of legal and criminal justice expert, in particular, as an expert of the OECD’s Anti-Corruption Division, Principal Researcher and Deputy Director of the research department of the Ministry of Justice’s training and research institute, Director-General of the inspection department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and most notably, Professor (2005-2008) and Deputy Director (2017-2021) of UNAFEI. During my 3.5 year tenure as the Deputy Director of UNAFEI, among other things, I was deeply involved in Workshop 2 on reducing reoffending of the 14th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (the Kyoto Congress), the outcome of which formed a basis for the development of the UN Model Strategies on Reducing Reoffending (the Kyoto Model Strategies). My main expertise is on investigation and prosecution, corruption, international cooperation in criminal justice, criminology and reducing reoffending.

I am greatly honoured and privileged to be appointed as Director of UNAFEI. I would like to say hello again to my UNAFEI friends around the world and am eager to establish new friendships with future participants and their countries.
As the Director, I am willing to show leadership to improve UNAFEI’s programmes and to help enhance international cooperation among criminal justice agencies around the world making best use of my professional experiences and relations.
Also, as a PNI, UNAFEI has been providing, and continues to provide, assistance in implementing the UN standards and norms, and in particular, implementation of the Kyoto Model Strategies will be one of the focuses in the years to come. We are willing to contribute to the international community in this area, as well as to other important issues.
I would appreciate your continuous assistance and support in our activities.

Warm regards,

Director, UNAFEI