Japan's new ambassador to China, Hideo Tarumi, will be quarantined for two weeks in his residence in Beijing, Japanese Embassy officials said Wednesday.
Tarumi arrived in China's eastern port city of Qingdao by a civil aircraft earlier in the day. After receiving a test for the novel coronavirus, he will move to Beijing by a vehicle chartered by the Japanese Embassy on Thursday and assume office, officials said.
According to sources familiar with his itinerary, Tarumi will take eight hours to go to Beijing from Qingdao by a vehicle to avoid contact with others. His wife will accompany him, but a chef for the ambassador will be quarantined in Qingdao.
Tarumi, a veteran diplomat known as a Chinese expert, served as a minister responsible for political affairs at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing for more than two years before returning to Tokyo in 2013.
