Masahiko Metoki of Japan has been elected the new director general of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the UN agency for postal matters.
Voting took place at the 27th Universal Postal Congress in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where Metoki received 102 votes against 40 votes for Pascal Clivaz of Switzerland and 14 votes for Jack Hamande of Belgium.
Metoki first joined Japan’s Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in 1983 where he was later appointed postmaster at the Nihonmatsu Post Office in Fukushima Prefecture, before eventually moving back to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications’ Postal Savings Bureau as its director of the International Service Office.
In 2003, he made his way back to Japan Post, where he continued his work in the postal savings business until he was called upon to join the organization’s privatization efforts as director of the office for the Promotion of Privatization of Postal Services in the Cabinet Secretariat.
In addition to his experience with the postal service, Metoki has worked with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Japan in Thailand. He has represented Japan as chair of the Postal Operations Council since 2012 and also chaired the 22nd Congress committee for postal financial services and the Postal Operations Council’s Postal Financial Services Group.