The government said Friday that it will appoint Shinichi Kitaoka, a University of Tokyo professor and a foreign policy adviser to the government, as an ambassador to the United Nations, and Takahiko Horimura, ambassador in charge of international counterterrorism cooperation, as ambassador to Brazil.
The government also decided at a Cabinet meeting to appoint Ken Shimanouchi, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Bureau, as ambassador to Spain. Mitsuo Sakaba, consul general in Chicago, will succeed Shimanouchi.
Government officials said Jun Yokota, consul general in Hong Kong, has been named ambassador to Israel, while Katsuya Ikeda, a special councilor at Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp., was named ambassador to Tanzania.
The appointment of Horimura will be effective immediately, while the four other appointments will take effect Monday, the officials said.
Kitaoka's appointment is part of the Foreign Ministry's effort to recruit outside experts to serve as overseas envoys, government sources said.
Kitaoka, 55, will replace Yoshiyuki Motomura, one of the two deputy permanent representatives to the U.N. There are three Japanese ambassadors to the U.N., headed by Koichi Haraguchi, the permanent representative.