The National Police Agency said Thursday it will dispatch a ranking officer to Indonesia for two years beginning Feb. 10 to help the country reform its police force.

Hiroto Yamazaki, former head of the general affairs department of the Chubu Regional Police, will be sent under the auspices of the Japan International Cooperation Agency. It is the first time for a senior Japanese police officer to be sent to an overseas police force on a long-term basis.

Yamazaki, who served as a first secretary in the Japanese Embassy to Indonesia from 1988 to 1991, is fluent in Indonesian. He also served as chief of a Japanese civilian police team that participated in the United Nations' peacekeeping operations in Cambodia in 1992 and 1993.