Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi on Friday named Naoyuki Agawa, a professor of law at Keio University, as minister in charge of public relations at the Japanese Embassy in Washington as part of her efforts to carry out reforms by appointing outside experts.

Agawa, 51, who graduated from Georgetown University Law School and is a member of a private advisory panel on Foreign Ministry reform, is licensed to practice law in New York and Washington D.C. He has practiced in both the United States and Japan, as well as working at Sony Corp.'s legal division before becoming a professor in 1999.

The appointment will take effect Aug. 1.

Kawaguchi also said that by the end of August she will name someone from the private sector as head of the division that evaluates foreign aid projects at the Economic Cooperation Bureau.

Kawaguchi said she would name 10 people from outside the ministry to senior posts by summer. With Friday's announcement, the number has risen to eight.

Hatsuhisa Takashima, a former NHK commentator who has been named the Foreign Ministry's next press secretary, will take up his new post on Aug. 2, Kawaguchi said.

Kawaguchi also plans to appoint Yutaka Iimura, 55, a councilor at the ministry, as ambassador to Indonesia.

The ministry will also name Hiroharu Koike, 61, a former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, as ambassador to the Netherlands, and Akio Kawato, 54, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Russia, as ambassador to Uzbekistan, Kawaguchi said.

All appointments will be formalized at the Cabinet meeting Tuesday and take effect Wednesday.

The post of ambassador to the Netherlands has been vacant since Kazuhiko Togo, a former director general of the European Affairs Bureau, was relieved of the post.