"It's a start to a career I never imagined"

Atsushi Murata is the first Japanese national over the age of 60 to be deployed by the United Nations Development Programme. His volunteer assignment is fully funded by the Government of Japan. At 65 and retired, Atsushi shares, "It's the start of a career I never imagined." Connecting the dots from Japan to the Republic of Djibouti in this story, and how Atsushi became a UN Volunteer.

Atsushi is from Chiba city in Japan and started his UN Volunteer assignment with UNDP on 7 December 2024. He is based in Djibouti, where he will support agricultural businesses and food security till almost the end of 2025. The project is funded through the Japanese Supplementary Budget and titled, 'Support to UN response to water and food insecurity caused by climate change and drought in Sub-Saharan Africa through the deployment of Japanese Specialists as UN Volunteers.'

He came across United Nations Volunteers quite by chance and was thrilled to know that even after retiring from his professional career he has an option for a second career. He applied to become a UN Volunteer under the Expert category, which requires prior work experience.

While selecting candidates for this volunteer assignment, Atsushi's diverse professional experience is what came in handy. 

I've always wanted to do work that contributes to society." Atsushi Murata, Japanese fully funded UN Volunteer with UNDP.

Atsushi previously worked in accounting with Sony, and also in various market analyses and managing human resources. He helped mobilize resources with the non-profit sector for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

After the successful recruitment process, which included UNV, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan, and UNDP—his volunteer assignment was confirmed. 

Atsushi had studied at a graduate school in France for one year in his late 30s, which was considered a plus for this assignment to Djibouti, where the official language is French. "I want to give my expertise and skills to my volunteer assignment in Djibouti," he shares.

UNV offers opportunities for people to volunteer from the age of 18 to 80—for Atsushi, this was a perfect culmination of his career, he says.

In 2023, almost 13,000 UN Volunteers served across the world—approximately 150 of them were Japanese. However, there was nobody over the age of 60, as far as the age record can be tracked.

Toily Kurbanov, Executive Coordinator, UNV, visited Japan in October and said, "We hope that Japanese seniors who bring skills, passion and young hearts will join us."

For Atsushi, this volunteer assignment is many things—an adventure, an avenue through which he desires to make a difference, and also a learning opportunity in a country he's never lived in. He says that as long as his 91-year-old mother is still healthy and his wife is okay with it, he would like to consider working as a UN Volunteer in another country after Djibouti.

Please read Atsushi's interview published in Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese online publication here.