Effective from 1 April 2017, Shoya Yoshida is the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation - Asia Pacific (ITUC-AP), the regional organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). The ITUC is the most representative international trade union organisation, representing the interests of all working people globally. The ITUC-AP, effectively representing over 60 million members of 59 national trade union centres in 34 countries and territories in the Asia Pacific region, strives for economic, social and political justice, in short, Decent Work, through trade union actions.

He started his career in 1987 as a Programme Officer of International Affairs in the Japan Institute of Labour (JIL). He served the ILO Bureau for Workers’ Activities (ACTRAV) in Geneva, Switzerland, as a Workers’ Education Expert between 1991 and 1994 and was posted to the International Training Centre of the ILO in Turin, Italy, as a Programme Officer from 1994 to 1997. After returning to Japan in 1997, he became the Chief of International Policy in the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC-RENGO) and was subsequently attached to the ITUC, formerly known as the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), in Brussels, Belgium, as Senior Economist in the Employment and International Labour Standards Department between 2001 - 2005 and returned to the JTUC-RENGO thereafter. Prior to joining the ITUC-AP, he held the position of Executive Director of the International Affairs Department of the JTUC-RENGO.