The Foreign Ministry will raise the bar for career-track diplomats to become ambassadors and close down seven overseas missions as part of its reform package, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi announced Wednesday.
Kawaguchi's "action plan" for reform sets a new rule under which career-track diplomats who have not served as section heads at the ministry cannot become ambassadors.
Currently, almost any career-tack diplomat can assume one of some 120 ambassadorial posts, but the new rule will limit the internal pool to the roughly 60 section heads.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.