TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Japanese government plans to appoint Taro Yamato, who leads the Defense Ministry's policy bureau, as its next top bureaucrat, sources familiar with the matter said Monday.

As a specialist in strategic affairs, Yamato promoted measures to fundamentally strengthen Japan's defense capabilities under the National Security Strategy and two other related key policy documents updated in late 2022.

Yamato will replace Kazuo Masuda as vice defense minister, the sources said, adding Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's Cabinet is set to approve the appointment soon.

After joining the Defense Agency, the predecessor of the ministry, in 1990, Yamato, a native of the western prefecture of Osaka and a graduate of Keio University in Tokyo, held positions such as director general of its local cooperation bureau.

The government is also considering appointing Gen. Hiroaki Uchikura, chief of staff of the Air Self-Defense Force, as the next head of the Joint Staff, the top uniformed post in the Self-Defense Forces currently held by Gen. Yoshihide Yoshida, the sources added.