Businessman Koichi Minaguchi will head the Japan Finance Corp. for Small Business, the government said Tuesday.
In addition, Nobuaki Usui, a former vice finance minister, will become president of the National Life Finance Corp.
Both appointments, approved by the Cabinet, will take effect Sunday, officials said.
Minaguchi, 71, was president of Nomura Research Institute Ltd. after serving as vice president of Nomura Securities Co. He also served as vice chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives from 1996 to April 2002.
Minaguchi will succeed Tomio Tsutsumi, while Usui, 62, will succeed Mamoru Ozaki.
Minaguchi's appointment was made in line with a decision in December by the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, a key government economic policy panel chaired by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, to place private-sector personnel in the top posts of governmental financial institutions.
The presidency of the state lender for small and midsize companies had been held by retired bureaucrats of the finance and trade ministries.
Usui served at the Finance Ministry's top bureaucratic post between July 1999 and June 2000.