The government plans to appoint Koji Tsuruoka, deputy foreign minister in charge of economic affairs, as Japan's chief negotiator for the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks, sources said.
The first ministerial meeting on the free-trade talks, likely to convene Friday, will bring together Akira Amari, minister in charge of the TPP negotiations, and related officials, they said Wednesday.
Tsuruoka became deputy foreign minister last September. He was head of the Foreign Policy Bureau and minister at the Japanese Embassy in Indonesia.