Naoko Ishigami

Naoko Ishigami (Born Naoko Takase, January 11th, 1944 in Tokyo, Japan) passed away peacefully at her home in Closter, New Jersey on January 14th, 2025.
Naoko was a cherished woman who touched the lives of the many. She grew up in Tokyo with her mother Tami and her grandmother Tane. She was one year old when her father, a lieutenant military combat engineer, passed away in the Philippines during WWII. From an early age, Naoko learned and practiced traditional Japanese tea ceremony and Bonseki (a traditional art form creating landscape scenery using white sand on a black tray), both talents taught from her mother.
After graduating high school from Toyo-Eiwa Jogakuin Girls School in Tokyo, Naoko studied English in Washington DC from 1962 to 1964, while staying with a Japanese diplomat family. After studying Spanish at Keio University, she worked as an interpreter for the medical office in Tokyo Olympics in 1964, Osaka World Expo in 1970, and also at a Japanese Consulting Institute. Naoko married her husband Yasunobu in 1970, and they have two sons and a daughter. Naoko and her family moved to New York in 1985 when her husband was assigned for work at the United Nations Headquarter in New York City, eventually settling here in Closter, NJ to raise her family. She actively accompanied her husband's official trips around the world including Czech Republic, Egypt, India, Switzerland, and the Republic of Marshall Island.
Naoko joined the United Nations Women's Guild in 1985, and from 1992, she held a position as a vice president of UNWG. Her work at UNWG truly reflected many of her talents, creativity, passion, and dedication to aid families and children in need across the globe, while enjoying her company with other UNWG Manhattan members such as incorporating fun energetic exercise sessions with music before their bi-monthly meetings. In 2012, Naoko received an honorary award from UNWG Manhattan Group to commemorate her invaluable services. Naoko and her social loving persona and giving heart will be truly missed by her family and friends.