Nobuyasu Abe, ambassador to Japan's permanent mission to the United Nations in Vienna, was appointed ambassador to Saudi Arabia on Friday.
The appointment, effective the same day, was approved at a Cabinet meeting.
Abe, 56, joined the Foreign Ministry in 1967 and served in the embassies in Washington, Tel Aviv and Manila, the Japanese mission in Geneva and the U.N. in New York.
A native of Akita Prefecture, he was appointed ambassador to the Vienna permanent mission in September 1999.