The Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced Tuesday that Kazuko Yokoo, a former ambassador to Ireland, will be appointed to the Supreme Court, making her the second female justice to serve on the top court.
Yokoo, 60, a former Social Insurance Agency chief, is scheduled to replace Takao Ode, 69, who is to resign today due to health problems.
Yokoo will be the only female justice on the 15-member panel and the second woman to serve after Hisako Takahashi, a former Labor Ministry bureaucrat who was appointed in 1994 and retired in 1997.
Yokoo joined the former Health and Welfare Ministry in 1964 after graduating from International Christian University in Tokyo.
She was appointed as the first female Social Insurance Agency chief in September 1994 and served as ambassador to Ireland from November 1998 to last week.