Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara has asked nonfiction writer Naoki Inose, a prominent advocate of privatization and decentralization, to serve as one of his four vice governors, sources said Wednesday.
Ishihara, re-elected in April to a third term, has said he wants to tap the private sector to fill the position.
Inose, 60, was a member of the central government's panel on advancing the privatization of the four semigovernmental expressway operators in 2002. He is now on a government panel looking at transferring authority from the central government to local governments.
"I prefer a person who has management abilities and exhibited his or her talent," Ishihara, 74, said earlier, suggesting he intended to pick someone who might succeed him after his term ends.