Tokyo  - The Japanese government has decided to nominate Kuniko Ozaki as a judge for the International Criminal Court, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.

The 53-year-old professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies and a special assistant to the Foreign Ministry will run in an election among member countries scheduled for November for a place on the court, Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague currently has two openings on the 18-judge panel after Fumiko Saiga, the first Japanese judge, died in April and Mohamed Shahabuddeen of Guyana stepped down in February.

Ozaki joined the Foreign Ministry in 1979 and served as director for the treaty affairs division of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna.

Since April she has conducted research on international, humanitarian, human rights and international organization law as a professor at the state-run graduate institute in Tokyo. (dpa)