Paraguay has tapped Isao Taoka, a first-generation immigrant from Tokushima Prefecture, as its next ambassador to Japan, officials said Friday.
Taoka, 60, who is from the town of Mino, became a Paraguayan citizen after emigrating with his family in 1958.
He is expected to take up his post in Tokyo later this month, the Paraguayan Embassy in Tokyo said.
An official at the Japanese Embassy in Paraguay said Taoka is "probably the first issei (first-generation) Japanese immigrant to be become an ambassador to Japan," adding the appointment underscores the degree of trust Japanese immigrants enjoy in Paraguay.
Taoka, who was born Aug. 22, 1943, heads a Japanese- Peruvian agricultural cooperative in Paraguay. He has served as the mayor of the southern city of La Paz since 1986 and is said to know President Nicanor Duarte Frutos well.