TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Japanese government on Friday appointed Vice Foreign Minister Masataka Okano as the new national security adviser, while naming Takehiro Funakoshi, a senior deputy foreign minister, as his successor.

Okano, 60, will take over the post tasked with coordinating the country's diplomatic and security policies on Jan. 20 from Takeo Akiba, who has headed the National Security Secretariat since July 2021.

Akiba, a former diplomat, will remain a special adviser to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's Cabinet.

The appointments come as Ishiba's government aims to maintain the nation's close relationship and strong security alliance with the United States after the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump on Jan. 20.

Okano was appointed the Foreign Ministry's top bureaucrat in August 2023. Entering the ministry in 1987 after graduating from the University of Tokyo, he previously served as chief of its Foreign Policy Bureau and as assistant chief Cabinet secretary.

Funakoshi, 59, will assume the post of vice foreign minister next Friday. He joined the ministry in 1988 and held posts including director general of the ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau before taking his current post in August 2023.

The ministry tapped Hiroyuki Namazu, director general of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, to succeed Funakoshi. Namazu, 58, previously headed the International Legal Affairs Bureau and the Economic Affairs Bureau.

Among the other appointments by the ministry effective next Friday, Masaaki Kanai, 56, director general of the International Legal Affairs Bureau, replaces Namazu. Kazuhiko Nakamura, 54, director general for global issues, fills Kanai's post.

The ministry also named Shinsuke Shimizu, ambassador in charge of issues such as the Tokyo International Conference on African Development and U.N. Security Council reforms, as Japan's new envoy to Lithuania, effective immediately.