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For her lifework, Naomi Kawase has been appointed UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador to carry forward its mandates for the Cultural and Creative Industries as well as Gender Equality.

This will be the first time in nine years that a Japanese national has been designated this role, making her the fifth Japanese national and first Japanese woman to be appointed this honour.

We hope you will continue to watch over her many continued activities.

From Naomi Kawase:

It is a great honour to be appointed UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.

The world is full of beautiful voices, each striving to pursue life to its fullest. Some are louder. Others are more quiet, more soft-spoken.

There is a need to celebrate the diversity of voices that exist, to uplift and empower the different values they represent. It is important for humanity, as we look forward to the next 1000 years and far beyond - as we move towards a kind of future, we all want to inhabit.

Through film, I look forward to carrying out the responsibilities as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, to continue to enrich this beautiful world through storytelling.

UNESCO Official Link is HERE

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While at UNESCO, I also had the opportunity to speak at "Africa Week 2021," participating in a lively discussion with French-Tunisian screenwriter and filmmaker Nadia El Fani and Senegalese filmmaker Fatou Senghor about gender equality within the creative film industry in Africa.

Next year, together with UNESCO, the Nara International Film Festival will play host to the "Grand Voyage for Africa" program. Ten young emerging African filmmakers will be coming to my hometown of Nara. Through the many engaged discussions that will arise, I'm sure there will be more stories to be found. I look forward to them.