Famous People in Japan



Ogata Sadako

Date of Birth 16 September 1927
Place of Birth Tokyo

Sadako Ogata was born in September 16th, 1927. She graduated from Sacred Heart University in Tokyo. She studied International Relations at Georgetown University in Washington.D.C. and got a M.A. She also studied politics and obtained a Ph.D. at the University of California,Berkeley.

She taught International Relations in her alma mater, Scared Heart University and International Christian University (ICU) from 1965 to 1974. She also became an assistant professor and International Relations and diplomacy lecturer at ICU from 1974 to 1976.

She began to work in The United Nations as the Japanese minister. After that, she worked in the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) and became the member who studied International Human Rights.

She took up an professor'post at Sophia University in 1980. She was the head of theInternational Relations' Laboratory and the head of department of language at this university.

She became the member of Trilateral Commission in 1984. She is an member of committee at the Laboratory of International Development.

She took office as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and has worked since February 18th ,1991. She served on three terms as the head of UNHCR. She has been working on the difficult problems in Kosovo now. She has to solve the problem of refugees.

References: Pamphlet of UNHCR, magazines(Gaikou Forum)

Reported by: Yuichiro Kitagawa
Data verified by: Naoki Enomoto
Date of Report: November 1999
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