Tokyo, Nov. 8 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government Friday appointed 11 new ambassadors including Junichi Ihara, ambassador to the Permanent Mission of Japan to the International Organizations in Geneva, as ambassador to France.
   

Ihara, 63, who joined the Foreign Ministry in 1979, took the Geneva post in November 2015 after serving as director-general of the ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau.
   

The government also approved the resignations of Makio Miyakawa as ambassador to Malaysia, Masashi Mizukami as ambassador to Spain, Matahiro Yamaguchi as ambassador to Lebanon and Shinya Aoki as ambassador to Samoa.
   

Followings are the other new appointments, with the new ambassadors’ key previous or current positions in parentheses:

   Masahiro Imai, 63, ambassador to Rwanda (senior managing executive officer of Itochu Corp. <8001>)
   Kuniyuki Nakahara, 62, ambassador to Papua New Guinea (consul-general in Qingdao)
   Akira Mizutani, 62, ambassador to Austria and Kosovo (professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University)
   Satoshi Iwakiri, 60, ambassador to Malawi (vice president of Japan International Cooperation Agency)
   Hiroyuki Kobayashi, 61, ambassador to Mongolia (consul-general in Nashville)
   Kazuyuki Yamazaki, 59, ambassador to the Permanent Mission of Japan to the International Organizations in Geneva (senior deputy foreign minister for economic affairs)
   Kazuya Nashida, 59, ambassador to Thailand (director-general at the Foreign Ministry’s International Cooperation Bureau)
   Takeshi Osuga, 57, deputy permanent representative to the United Nations (press secretary for the Foreign Ministry)
   Tsuyoshi Yamamoto, 56, ambassador to Guatemala (consul-general in Rio de Janeiro)
   Shigeru Ushio, 57, ambassador to Portugal (director-general at the Foreign Ministry’s African Affairs Department)

Note: The appointment of Ihara is effective on Friday and those of the other 10 officials are set to go into effect on Monday.