Kazuhiko Togo, former director general of the Foreign Ministry's European Affairs Bureau, was finally named Japanese ambassador to the Netherlands on Tuesday after weeks of waiting for a freeze on his transfer to be lifted, the ministry said.
Togo, 56, had worked on advancing ongoing negotiations between Japan and Russia on a territorial dispute and concluding a bilateral peace treaty while serving in the director general post from August 1999 to the beginning of May.
His relocation to his new post to replace Tadashi Ikeda was put on hold May 8, when Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka placed a freeze on all personnel transfers.