The government announced Friday the appointments of 14 ambassadors, including Koichiro Fukui, a former executive at major telecommunications carrier KDDI Corp., as envoy to Bulgaria.
The appointment of Fukui, who was also an executive at state-affiliated Development Bank of Japan, is part of continued efforts to reform the ministry by filling more posts with people from the outside because the bureaucracy has taken considerable flak for its lack of exchange with the private sector.
Hideaki Domichi, head of the Foreign Ministry's Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau, has been named ambassador to Iran.
A former senior bureaucrat at the Finance Ministry, Satoru Miyamura has been appointed ambassador to Kenya.
Masamitsu Oki, who was ambassador in charge of Iraq, has taken the post of ambassador to Kuwait.
Norihiro Okuda, who belonged to the foreign minister's secretariat, has been picked to represent Japan in Afghanistan.
Masahiko Horie, counselor at the Defense Agency, has been named ambassador to Qatar.
The Foreign Ministry's chief of protocol, Nobutake Odano, has been appointed ambassador to Myanmar.
Nobuaki Tanaka, a senior nonparliamentarian official at the House of Councilors, has been appointed ambassador to Pakistan.
Makoto Katsura, a senior nonparliamentarian official at the House of Representatives, will lead Japan's diplomatic mission in Laos.