Obama to Name Caroline Kennedy as U.S. Envoy to Japan

Washington, July 12 (Jiji Press)--U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to shortly name Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, as the United States' next ambassador to Japan to succeed John Roos, informed sources said Friday. Following the expected nomination, she will assume the Tokyo post after being approved by the Senate. Kennedy, 55, will be the first woman ever to become U.S. ambassador to the Asian nation. Kennedy was one of the first to express support for Obama in a race to pick the Democratic Party's candidate for the 2008 presidential election. For the 2012 presidential election, she served as cohead of Obama's campaign office. Using her high name recognition among the public, she helped Obama raise campaign funds and boost voter support. As reward for her significant contributions, Obama seems to have decided to name her ambassador to a major country. The U.S. government has conducted an investigation on whether Kennedy is an appropriate choice for an ambassador's post since February when the media first reported that Obama would appoint her envoy to Japan, the sources said. Many Japanese and U.S. government officials are seen welcoming Kennedy because of her close ties with the president. She is also close to Secretary of State John Kerry, who was senator from Massachusetts where the Kennedy family was based. She visited Japan in 1986 during her honeymoon, according to the U.S. media. After taking up the post of ambassador to Japan, Kennedy would have to face challenging issues such as the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station in Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, and a Japan-China spat over the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, although she has no direct experience in politics or diplomacy. Kennedy, a lawyer, serves as head of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and as executive of many other nonprofit organizations. She wrote about 10 books including those on poems. Roos became U.S. ambassador to Japan in August 2009, the month before the Democratic Party of Japan came to power. He worked hard to rebuild U.S.-Japan relations, which were shaken by then Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's mishandling of many key issues including the Futenma relocation. Roos became the first U.S. ambassador to Japan to attend annual peace memorial ceremonies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki for mourning the victims of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of the two western Japan cities. He took part in the Hiroshima ceremony on Aug. 6, 2010, and the Nagasaki ceremony on Aug. 9, 2012. END