Tomihiro Taniguchi, executive director of Nuclear Power Engineering Corp., will become deputy director general of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, Foreign Ministry officials said Tuesday.
Taniguchi, 57, will be formally appointed in summer or later, the officials said. He will become the third Japanese to serve as deputy director general of the IAEA, which has a term of five years.
Taniguchi will be in charge of nuclear safety, including the development of new international safety standards for nuclear facilities and the disposal of radioactive waste.
Taniguchi, a graduate of the University of Tokyo's engineering department, entered the then Ministry of International Trade and Industry in 1968. He became a visiting professor at his alma mater in 1998 before taking up his current position last year. He is a native of Tokyo.