Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara plans to name the Hiroshima Prefectural Police chief as one of his vice governors in charge of security issues, sources said Friday.
Ishihara will propose the appointment of Yutaka Takehana, 54, at a June 17 meeting of the steering committee of the metropolitan assembly, the sources said.
Pending approval by the assembly, scheduled to convene June 24, Takehana will be the first prefectural vice governor who was a serving official in the police bureaucracy.
Takehana, a graduate of the University of Tokyo, joined the National Police Agency in 1973 and has served as head of the Oita prefectural force as well as in ranking posts at the Metropolitan Police Department, which covers the Tokyo area.
Ishihara has called for enhancing security measures as a key policy goal after he was re-elected in April. He has already unveiled a plan to allocate 1,000 metropolitan government workers to support police work.
He may appoint up to four vice governors but has only one at the moment: Takeo Hamauzu, 55, who completes his term next year.
Ishihara also proposed the reappointment of Masamichi Fukunaga as vice governor at an extraordinary assembly meeting in May, but it has yet to be approved.