KYODO NEWS – 4 minutes ago – 16:29 | All, Japan
The Japanese government is likely to soon replace national security adviser Takeo Akiba with Vice Foreign Minister Masataka Okano, government sources said Tuesday.
Okano, 60, will coordinate the country’s diplomatic and security policies, including those related to Japan’s key security ally the United States, after he is formally named secretary general of the National Security Secretariat under Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
Tokyo has decided on the change ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Ishiba, who took office in October, seeks to visit the United States later this year to hold his first in-person talks with Trump.
Okano is also expected to make efforts to improve Japan’s relations with China, as the incoming Trump administration is expected to pursue its “America First” policy and take a tough stance against the Communist-led government.
Moreover, Okano will play a key role in introducing “active cyber defense,” an approach aimed at monitoring and detecting signs of cyberattacks and, if necessary, disrupting enemy servers with computer viruses to neutralize them, the sources said.
Okano, currently the top bureaucrat at the Foreign Ministry, held key government posts under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Ishiba’s predecessor, serving as chief of the ministry’s Foreign Policy Bureau and assistant chief Cabinet secretary.
Akiba, also a former vice foreign minister, assumed his current post in July 2021 under Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and led the compilation of three key documents in December 2022 outlining Japan’s fundamental national security strategy over the following 10 years.
The government is considering appointing Takehiro Funakoshi to succeed Okano as vice foreign minister, the sources said. Funakoshi is currently serving as senior deputy foreign minister for political affairs.
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KYODO NEWS – 34 minutes ago – 15:59 | Japan, World, All
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