Japan to Appoint Okano as Assistant Chief Cabinet Secretary

Tokyo, Aug. 26 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government decided Friday to appoint Masataka Okano, director-general of the Foreign Ministry's Foreign Policy Bureau, to replace Shigeki Takizaki as assistant chief cabinet secretary in charge of diplomacy.

Okano, 58, joined the Foreign Ministry in 1987 and served in such posts as director-general of the International Legal Affairs Bureau before assuming the current post in July 2021.

Keiichi Ichikawa, 56, director-general of the ministry's North American Affairs Bureau, will succeed Okano as head of the policy bureau.

The government also decided to appoint Yasuhiro Kobe, 54, minister at the Japanese embassy in the United States, as director-general of the North American Affairs Bureau, and Fumio Shimizu, 57, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to China, as deputy minister.

The appointments will go into effect at the start of next month.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]