Yukio Takasu was appointed Special Adviser on Human Security to the United Nations Secretary-General on 10 December 2010. 

From July 2007 to August 2010, Mr. Takasu was Permanent Representative and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations. Prior to that, from 2005, he served as his country’s ambassador, in charge of human security, science and technology cooperation. Also during that period, as Special Envoy for United Nations reform, he initiated the creation of the Friends of Human Security, an informal forum promoting the human security approach within United Nations activities.

From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Takasu lived in Vienna, serving as Japan’s ambassador to international organizations based in Vienna, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBTO) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. Among other capacities, he held the position of President of the IAEA General Conference and he chaired the Preparatory Commission for the CTBTO.

During a 2000 posting in Tokyo, Mr. Takasu held the position of Director-General for his country’s Department of Multilateral Cooperation. In that capacity, he participated in hosting the Group of Eight Okinawa Summit, promoting his country’s initiative for human security and launching the Commission for Human Security.

From 1997 to 2000, he served as Japan’s Ambassador to the United Nations, including during Japan’s Presidency of the Security Council in the first years. That posting came as of 1993, once he had served as Controller of the United Nations at the Assistant Secretary-General level, with responsibility for the Organization’s budget and financial management.

Mr. Takasu served as Deputy Chief of Mission at his country’s embassy in Indonesia from 1992 to 1993. Prior to that, as a member of Japan’s foreign ministry in Tokyo, he was responsible for matters relating to his country’s foreign policy towards Western Europe and the United Nations. He was also in charge of formulating Japan’s contribution to international efforts during the Gulf crisis, taking part in drafting the United Nations Peacekeeping Cooperation Law.

While serving at his country’s Mission to the United Nations as First Secretary and then Counsellor from 1981 to 1988, Mr. Takasu was a member of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. He began working as a diplomat in 1969, serving overseas in posts such as London, Kuala Lumpur, New York, Jakarta, Vienna and Washington, DC.

Mr. Takasu was educated in the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo and at Oxford University’s Merton college. He was born on 29 August 1946.