The government on Tuesday appointed senior Defense Ministry official Kazuo Masuda as vice defense minister, replacing Atsuo Suzuki as the ministry's top bureaucrat.
The appointment of Masuda, the 59-year-old head of the ministry's Bureau of Defense Policy, will be effective from July 14. He played a central role in revising three key defense documents last December, including the National Security Strategy.
In updating the three documents, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government pledged to acquire counterstrike capabilities, a significant shift from Japan's exclusively defense-oriented policy under its war-renouncing Constitution.
A native of Chiba Prefecture, Masuda joined the Defense Agency, the precursor of the Defense Ministry, in 1988 after graduating from Keio University in Tokyo. He has held various posts, including director of the Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation Division.
He also served as an executive secretary to former prime ministers Shinzo Abe and Yoshihide Suga.
The government, meanwhile, tapped Kiyoshi Serizawa, 59, director general of the ministry's secretariat, as vice minister of defense for international affairs to succeed Masami Oka. The appointment will be effective from July 21.
Masaki Fukasawa, 58, director general of the ministry's Bureau of Local Cooperation, was named as head of the Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency, responsible for weapons procurement.
Koji Kano, 57, councilor for national security affairs at the Cabinet Secretariat, will become head of the ministry's Bureau of Defense Policy.
The appointments of Fukasawa and Kano will be effective from July 14.
