Japan's new foreign minister likely to take office Wed.

TOKYO, March 8 Kyodo - Japan's new foreign minister is expected to take office on Wednesday, following Seiji Maehara's resignation over a money scandal, government officials said Tuesday.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan told reporters in the evening that he will be ''not taking that long'' in picking Maehara's successor.
The government is planning to have an attestation ceremony for the new minister on Wednesday, according to the officials.
Kan accelerated his efforts to pick Japan's new foreign minister as a two-day meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Eight nations will be held next Monday in Paris.
The resignation of Maehara, who had been foreign minister since September, was formalized Monday after he admitted to accepting political donations from a South Korean woman living in Kyoto whom he has known since his childhood.
Japan's Political Funds Control Law bans contributions from foreign individuals to prevent domestic politics from being influenced by foreign countries.
State Foreign Secretary Takeaki Matsumoto and former Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Masayuki Naoshima are some of the names that have been floated by ruling Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers as possible successors to Maehara.
People close to Kan have said the government should not rule out the possibility of having DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada serve again as foreign minister.
But Okada has told people close to him that ''the successor will not be me,'' a political source said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano is now temporarily doubling as foreign minister.
The G-8 countries are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.