Ms Chihoko Asada-Miyakawa has served as the ILO’s Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific since 1 August 2020. As such, she oversees the ILO’s operations in 36 ILO Member States in Asia and the Pacific.

A key part of her role is to stimulate and foster dialogue between social partners (governments, workers and employers) across Asia-Pacific, helping them to develop and implement coherent strategies that address intertwined issues of sustainable development.

Prior to this, she represented the Japanese Government at the ILO Governing Body as part of her two-year role as Assistant Minister for International Labour Affairs, within the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Between 2014 and 2018, Ms Asada-Miyakawa worked for the Urban Renaissance Agency, rbecoming the Vice-President, responsible for housing in Japan. She served as the Chair of G-20 Employment Working Group under the Japanese G-20 Presidency in 2019. She was also Deputy Director General for Policies on Cohesive Society at her country’s Cabinet Office, as well as Director General of the Shizuoka Labour Bureau within the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. From 2010 to 2011, she was Deputy Assistant Minister for International Affairs, after having worked the year prior to that as Deputy Assistant Minister for International Policy Coordination, both roles within the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Ms Asada-Miyakawa holds a master’s degree in Public Policy (MPP) from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University in Cambridge, the United States. She graduated with a Bachelor of Law degree from the Faculty of Law, Tokyo University, in Japan.