said Monday it will open an office in Tokyo next week to engage in wider activities in Asia.
The new office will be set up inside United Nations University in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward. It will be headed by Kiyoko Ikegami, who is working as a department director for the Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning, according to UNFPA officials.
Ikegami said she would like to raise public awareness of reproductive health rights.
"I want to create routes through which correct information on sex and reproduction are delivered," she said.
UNFPA, established in 1969, mainly helps developing countries find solutions to their population problems. As the largest international source of population assistance, it targets areas such as reproductive health, including family planning and sexual health, population and development strategies and advocacy.
Japan is the second-largest contributor to UNFPA.
An UNFPA official at the headquarters in New York said the U.N. body expects the Tokyo office to play a major role in Asia as AIDS/HIV and population problems are developing throughout the region.