Kiyo Akasaka is Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information at the United Nations. Before assuming his post in March 2007, he was Deputy Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Mr. Akasaka was Japan's Ambassador to the UN from 2000 to 2001. He has held a number of senior positions in the Japanese Foreign Ministry and served as one of his country's negotiators at the Kyoto Conference on Climate Change in December 1997.