Tanaka intends to retain Yanai as envoy to U.S

Japan Policy & Politics, August 6, 2001

TOKYO, July 30 Kyodo

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka intends to retain Japanese Ambassador to the United States Shunji Yanai, despite his reported offer to resign, and name Deputy Foreign Minister Ryozo Kato as next vice foreign minister, a senior ministry official said Monday.

Tanaka and the Cabinet Secretariat are discussing these and other major personnel transfers within the ministry, slated to be approved by the cabinet on Aug. 11, the official said.

Yanai has told Tanaka and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi he intends to resign as the top Japanese envoy to the U.S. to take responsibility for an embezzlement scandal involving the Japanese consul general in Denver, Colorado, according to government sources.

But the foreign minister apparently believes it is not a good time for Yanai to be moved to a different position, the official explained without elaborating.

As a replacement for Vice Foreign Minister Yutaka Kawashima in the post as top bureaucrat in the ministry, Tanaka wants to appoint Kato, who is deputy foreign minister in charge of political affairs, the official said.