Japan Names 3 New Ambassadors

Tokyo, Aug. 8 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government on Thursday appointed Yoichi Suzuki, former ambassador to Singapore, as ambassador to France, effective immediately. The government also named Tsuneo Kurokawa, vice president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, as ambassador to Morocco, and Yutaka Yokoi, former press secretary of the Foreign Ministry, as ambassador to Turkey. Both appointments will take effect on Aug. 20. Suzuki, 62, joined the Foreign Ministry in 1975. He served as consul-general in Boston and director-general of the ministry's Economic Affairs Bureau before becoming ambassador to Singapore in August 2010. After joining JICA in 1979, Kurokawa, 60, has served as head of the agency's Senegal office and chief of its Africa Department. He assumed the current post in September 2011. Yokoi, 58, who entered the Foreign Ministry in 1979, became spokesman at the ministry in September 2011 after serving as minister at the Japanese embassy in Washington and envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to China. END