The Cabinet on Tuesday endorsed a set of key personnel changes at the Foreign Ministry, including the appointment of Shinsuke Sugiyama, deputy foreign minister in charge of political affairs, as the ministry's top bureaucrat.
The 63-year-old Sugiyama, former director-general of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, replaces Akitaka Saiki, 63, as vice foreign minister. Saiki is retiring after holding the top bureaucrat post for three years.
Sugiyama is the first person to have attended a private university to assume the top bureaucrat post at the ministry, which has been dominated by graduates of the University of Tokyo and a handful of other national universities.
Sugiyama passed the Foreign Ministry's exam in 1976 while he was a student at Waseda University and joined the ministry the following April before graduation.
Takeo Akiba, 57, director-general of the ministry's Foreign Policy Bureau, succeeds Sugiyama as deputy foreign minister, while Kimihiro Ishikane, 58, director-general of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, will take Akiba's post.
All of the appointments were effective Tuesday.
Kenji Kanasugi, 56, director-general of the Economic Affairs Bureau, succeeds Ishikane, while Kanji Yamanouchi, 58, minister at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, takes Kanasugi's post.
Keiichi Katakami, 62, ambassador to the European Union, was named deputy foreign minister for economic affairs, replacing Yasumasa Nagamine, 62, who moves to the Minister's Secretariat.
Nagamine is likely to become the new ambassador to South Korea, according to government sources.
