Japan approves appointment of 1st envoy to UNESCO

Japan Policy & Politics, Jan 20, 2003

TOKYO, Jan. 17 Kyodo

The government approved Friday the appointment of Teiichi Sato, former administrative vice education minister, as Japan's first ambassador to UNESCO, government officials said.

The appointment of 61-year-old Sato as ambassador to the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization took effect immediately, they said.

Japan established the new post as of Jan. 1.

Sato, a native of Oita Prefecture, joined the Education Ministry in 1964, and worked in jobs such as director of the minister's secretariat and administrative vice minister.

At a cabinet meeting the government also approved the appointments of former Ambassador to Pakistan Sadaaki Numata as ambassador to Okinawa, succeeding Hiroshi Hashimoto, who became ambassador to Austria.

The post of ambassador to Okinawa was established in 1997 under the cabinet of then Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto from the viewpoint of placing emphasis on issues concerning Okinawa, including the unusually heavy U.S. military presence.

Numata, 59, was ministry spokesman before becoming ambassador to Pakistan, while Hashimoto, 61, was also ministry spokesman and ambassador to Singapore.

Meanwhile, Toshio Mochizuki, former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, was appointed ambassador to Greece.

Mochizuki, 60, has had jobs such as consul general at Japanese diplomatic offices in New York and Boston since joining the ministry in 1966.

Kanji Tsushima, consul general at the Japanese Consulate General in Porto Alegre, Brazil, was appointed ambassador to Mozambique while Consul General in India's Chennai, Masayuki Makiya, was appointed ambassador to Sudan.

Tsushima, 59, became consul general in Porto Alegre in February 2001, while Makiya, 60, became consul general in Chennai in May 2001.

Katsuo Yamashita, consul general in Makassar, Indonesia, became ambassador to Papua New Guinea, while Yoshitaka Tomita, counselor at Japan's permanent mission to the United Nations Office and International Organization in Geneva, was appointed ambassador to Guinea.

Yamashita, 61, became consul general in Makassar in April 2001, while Tomita, 61, became counselor in Geneva in November 2001.

Kiyoshi Araki, Japan's minister to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris since August 2000, became envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the OECD.

Araki, 53, has had posts including minister at the Japanese Embassy in Canada and deputy director general at the ministry's secretariat.

Yoshio Nomoto, minister at the Japanese Embassy in China, took up the post of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary there.

Nomoto, 54, has had such posts as consul general in Seattle.

Ichiro Komatsu, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at the Japanese Embassy in the United States, was appointed director general of the European Affairs Bureau.

Komatsu, 51, has had posts including minister to the Japanese embassies in South Korea and in the U.S. as well as deputy director general of the Treaties Bureau.