Japanese gets top U.N. finance job

Foreign Ministry official Jun Yamazaki left Tuesday for New York to take up a senior post at the United Nations.

Yamazaki, 51, was named assistant secretary-general in the Office of Program Planning, Budgets and Accounts, and the Controller by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon.

Yamazaki is the second Japanese to hold the position known informally as the "U.N. finance minister." Yukio Takasu, who held the job from 1993 to 1997, was the first.

"I want to produce a budget that reflects the secretary-general's goals and is acceptable to other member countries," Yamazaki told The Asahi Shimbun before departing for the United States.

Yamazaki served in the ministry's International Cooperation Bureau as a deputy director-general for global issues until earlier this month.(IHT/Asahi: August 20,2008)