The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will send an energy official to Baghdad to join the U.S. body administering postwar Iraq, METI chief Takeo Hiranuma said Friday.
Hisanori Nei, head of the Petroleum Refining and Reserve Division of the Natural Resources and Energy Agency, a unit of METI, is expected to participate in the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, Hiranuma said.
The Foreign Ministry has already decided to dispatch two officials to ORHA.
"Division head Nei is an engineer and has experience in the Middle East, so he will be able to quickly adapt (to jobs at ORHA)," Hiranuma said.
METI has already notified ORHA of the plan through the Foreign Ministry. Nei will depart for Iraq as soon as METI receives approval from ORHA.
Nei, 44, served as head of the Middle East and Africa office at the then Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the predecessor of METI.