Foreign Minister Yohei Kono on Tuesday appointed the ministry's Treaties Bureau Director General Shotaro Yachi as deputy vice minister for foreign policy and Japanese Minister to the United States Shin Ebihara to take Yachi's place, the ministry said.

Yachi is a 56-year-old native of Ishikawa Prefecture and has served as consul general in Los Angeles, while his successor Ebihara, 52, who hails from Tokyo, has served as secretary to the prime minister.

The Cabinet on Tuesday morning approved the appointments, which will take effect Jan. 6 when the government ministries and agencies are reorganized.

In other appointments, Yoshihiro Nishida, 54, deputy director general of the Foreign Policy Bureau, was named director general of the Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Bureau. Nishida, from Ishikawa Prefecture, has served as Japanese minister to France.

Consular and Migration Affairs Department Director General Tadashi Imai will become director general of the Intelligence and Analysis Bureau. Imai, a 56-year-old native of Yamaguchi Prefecture, was previously deputy director general of the Foreign Policy Bureau.

Asian Affairs Bureau Director General Kunihiko Makita will remain in the same position, but his bureau will be renamed the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau from Jan. 6. The European and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, headed by Kazuhiko Togo, will be changed to the European Affairs Bureau.

Vice Foreign Minister Yutaka Kawashima will retain his post, as will Ryozo Kato and Yoshiji Nogami, deputy ministers for foreign affairs, and most others holding executive positions in the ministry.