Japan Appoints 7 Ambassadors, One Minister

December 4, 2018

Tokyo--The Japanese government appointed seven ambassadors and an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary on Tuesday, including Takashi Kurai as ambassador to Ukraine.

The appointment of Kurai went into effect the same day.

Kurai, 63, joined the Foreign Ministry in 1981. He took the post of ambassador to Pakistan in February 2016 after serving as minister at the Japanese embassy in Russia.

Following are the other seven appointments, all of which will take effect on Thursday, with the diplomats' key previous or current posts in parentheses:

Tatsuhiko Kasai, 62, ambassador to Kazakhstan (consul-general in Vladivostok)

Tatsuo Hirayama, 61, ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Christopher and Nevis, and Saint Vincent (consul-general in Perth)

Reiichiro Takahashi, 62, ambassador to Australia (ambassador to Afghanistan, consul-general in New York)

Akihiko Nakajima, 61, ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (deputy chief cabinet secretary)

Norio Maruyama, 59, ambassador to South Africa (assigned to the foreign minister's secretariat)

Keiko Yanai, 62, ambassador to Maldives (consul-general in Brisbane)

Noriyuki Shikata, 55, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to China (minister at the embassy in China) Jiji Press