TOKYO — Sadako Ogata, the first woman to be named the United Nations high commissioner for refugees and the first Japanese national to hold that position, died on Oct. 22 in Tokyo. She was 92.

Her death was confirmed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, a government-funded aid organization of which Ms. Ogata was president for nine years before her retirement in 2012.

Ms. Ogata was appointed to lead the refugees commission at the age of 63 in 1991, as the Cold War was coming to an end. As high commissioner, she oversaw refugee operations during a time of ravaging conflict in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, East Timor and other regions, as well as the return of refugees to their homes after wars in Cambodia and Ethiopia.

Her petite stature (she was less than five feet tall) and mild manner masked a formidable moral vision. She earned the sobriquet “diminutive giant” after one of her signature achievements: In 1991, in response to the displacement of more than a million Iraqi Kurds during the Persian Gulf war, she pushed the commission to change its rules to provide aid not only to refugees escaping from their countries but also to those fleeing conflict within their countries. She engaged in tough negotiations with Iraqi officials that allowed the agency to set up refugee camps on the northern Iraqi border with Turkey.