The farm ministry said Friday that Masaaki Okajima, director general of the ministry's secretariat, will resign early next month over a scandal involving the sale of tainted rice.

Okajima and other senior officials were already punished by the ministry in November.

Masanori Sato, director general of the ministry's Food Safety and Consumer Affairs Bureau, will assume the post to be vacated by Okajima, it said.

The personnel change will take effect Jan. 5, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said.

"We will promote farm, forestry and fisheries policies under a new team after conducting a personnel change" now that the scandal has been settled for the time being, farm minister Shigeru Ishiba told a news conference Friday.

Ishiba said he has accepted Okajima's offer to step down.

Some rice wholesalers were found earlier this year to have distributed pesticide-tainted imported rice as fit for edible purposes despite the government selling it to them for distribution for nonedible uses.