Ms. Ishigaki met with Ms. Yuko Maekawa, Senior Human Settlements Officer and Deputy Regional Director at UN-Habitat Regional Office for Arab States, who took up the post at the end of November. Ms. Ishigaki introduced various activities in Asia and the Pacific; and they shared their expectations for further strengthening collaboration between Regional Offices.

Ms. Ishigaki paid year-end visits to members of the Parliamentary League on UN-Habitat and presented calendars featuring the award-winning drawings created by children from the Asia-Pacific region for the World Habitat Day Children’s Drawing Contest. Former Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Mr. Shinsuke Suematsu, kindly offered words of warm encouragement. With 2025 coming to an end, we would like to take this opportunity to reflect on this year’s achievements and lessons. We remain committed to addressing challenges, such as the response to the disaster in Sri Lanka.

Ms. Ishigaki delivered a special lecture at the Science Council of Japan’s academic forum, “The Future of Global Disaster Risk Reduction: Strengthening the Resilience of Megacities thorough Science Technology and Innovation”. In her lecture, Ms. Ishigaki presented the challenges faced by megacities in Asia-Pacific and outlined UN-Habitat’s “Build Back Better” approach. At the forum, in addition to lessons learned and recommendations based on Japan’s earthquake experiences, many challenges and future perspectives were also shared by speakers from overseas.

Ms. Ishigaki met with Hon. GEMBA Koichiro, Vice-Speaker of the House of Representatives. Ms. Ishigaki expressed her gratitude to Hon. Gemba who led the Parliamentarians’ group and visited UN-Habitat Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya to meet Executive Director Rossbach this August. In light of the devastation caused by the cyclone that struck Sri Lanka at the end of November, the Ms. Ishigaki and Hon. Gemba exchanged views on the utilization of Japan’s knowledge and experience in disaster prevention and disaster recovery, and the importance of parliamentary diplomacy among Diet members.

Ms. Ishigaki delivered a lecture as part of Kyushu Sangyo University’s Global Leadership Program (GLP). She introduced the activities of UN-Habitat ROAP and received many questions from students, especially about what is important to work internationally. We hope the lecture provided the students with an inspiration for their future career development. After the lecture, many students contributed to the “Water for Life Fund” to support emergency assistance for those affected by the cyclone in Sri Lanka.