Koichi Minaguchi, a former vice chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Ex- ecutives, will be the new governor of the Japan Finance Corporation for Small Business, government sources said Sunday.

Minaguchi, 71, will take over for Tomio Tsutsumi when he assumes the post Jan. 12. The Cabinet endorsed the appointment at a meeting on Tuesday, the sources said.

The decision to appoint Minaguchi, who worked in the private sector, was an unusual move. The Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, a government advisory panel, decided last December to place individuals from outside the public sector in the top posts of government-affiliated financial institutions.

The corporation's top post was in the past awarded to retired bureaucrats of the Finance Ministry and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, which is now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Minaguchi served as president of the Nomura Research Institute and vice president of Nomura Securities Co. He recently served as acting chairman of the council to promote decentralization and was a member of a private panel advising Nobuteru Ishihara, state minister in charge of administrative reform, on reforming the public corporation system.

The government also decided to appoint Nobuaki Usui, 62, a former vice finance minister, as head of National Life Finance Corporation after Mamoru Ozaki retires from the post.