Akio Miyajima, deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Britain, will take up a new post leading the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's foreign affairs activities, the central government said Tuesday.

With the new post, to be officially created and filled by the career diplomat Wednesday, Tokyo is attempting to boost exchanges with other metropolises around the globe ahead of the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Miyajima, a 56-year-old graduate of Waseda University, entered the Foreign Ministry in 1981 and has served as a minister at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations, a counselor at the embassy in South Korea and director of the ministry's First North American Division.

Tokyo Gov. Yoichi Masuzoe has been actively promoting capital-to-capital diplomacy since taking office in February.

Although territorial squabbles have prevented Prime Minister Shinzo Abe from holding summits with the leaders of China and South Korea, Masuzoe visited Beijing and held talks with Mayor Wang Anshun in April.

Masuzoe plans to visit Seoul from July 23 to 25.