Author and attorney Caroline Kennedy attends the signing of her book 'She Walks In Beauty' at Barnes and Noble Union Square on April 5, 2011, in New York City. Kennedy has written several books about law and poetry. (Photo: Mike Coppola, Getty Images) 
 
 WASHINGTON — President Obama intends to nominate Caroline Kennedy, a close political ally and the daughter of slain president John F. Kennedy, as U.S. ambassador to Japan, the White House announced Wednesday. 
 
 Kennedy brings star power to the post as the most famous living member of America's best-known Democratic political dynasty. 
 
 The nomination rewards Kennedy for providing crucial early support to Obama. She endorsed him in January 2008 over his better-known rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Kennedy went on to campaign for his election and to co-chair the vice presidential search committee that selected Joe Biden as his running mate. 
 
 By giving Kennedy the nod, Obama continues a tradition of sending a high-profile envoy to Japan. Previous ambassadors have included former vice president Walter Mondale and two former Senate majority leaders, Mike Mansfield and Howard Baker. 
 
 If confirmed by the Senate, Kennedy would be the first female ambassador to represent the United States in Japan. 
 
 Kennedy, 55, would fulfill another family legacy: Her grandfather, Joseph P. Kennedy, served as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1940. Her aunt, Jean Smith, was ambassador to Ireland. 
 
 The White House made the announcement with little fanfare, announcing Kennedy's nomination Wednesday afternoon alongside three nominees for domestic posts. In a statement, Obama said all the individuals bring a "depth of experience and tremendous dedication to their new roles." 
 
 The post would place Kennedy at the center of the U.S. relationship with one of the world's largest economies. She would replace John Roos, a Silicon Valley lawyer and Obama fundraiser, who had no previous diplomatic experience but won praise for his work helping to coordinate the U.S. relief effort after the earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan in March 2011. 
 
 Kennedy's nomination comes after months of tension in the region. Japan is engaged in territorial disputes with both China and South Korea. Internally, the Japanese government is working to revive the economy and grapple with a rapidly aging population and enormous public debt. 
 
 Kennedy, whose nomination has long been expected, has neither extensive government nor business experience. 
 
 "Japan is in real crisis right now. This is a moment for some real creative thinking on the part of the United States," said Clyde Prestowitz, an expert on Japan and president of the Economic Strategic Institute. He objects to Kennedy's nomination. 
 
 "The only thing Caroline Kennedy has going for her is the Kennedy name," he said. "We keep handicapping ourselves in our global diplomacy by putting people into positions who don't know anything about what they are doing." 
 
 The ambassadorship would mark the highest profile role undertaken by Kennedy. She has authored 10 books and serves as president of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. She spent much of her adult life avoiding the family business of politics until she sought appointment in late 2008 to Hillary Clinton's U.S. Senate seat from New York. 
 
 Kennedy withdrew from consideration weeks later after a rocky public rollout and persistent questions about her lack of political experience. 
 
 In a statement, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it understands that Kennedy has Obama's "deep confidence" and "highly appreciates her nomination as reflecting the great importance the Obama administration attaches to the Japan-U.S. alliance." 
 
 Her supporters note that few U.S. ambassadors could claim closer ties to both Obama and to Secretary of State John Kerry, who served alongside her uncle, Edward Kennedy, for more than two decades in the U.S. Senate. 
 
 John Podesta, who served as White House chief of staff in the Clinton administration, said Kennedy "brings tremendous assets to the post, the most important of which is the trust of and direct pipeline to the president and the secretary." 
 
 David Lewis, a political scientist at Vanderbilt University who studies presidential appointments, called the nomination the "latest in a string of political appointments" Obama has made in his second term. Political allies and fundraisers have been nominated to top diplomatic jobs in South Africa, Denmark, England, the Netherlands and the Dominican Republic in recent weeks. 
 
 "From the Japanese perspective, what Kennedy lacks in foreign policy experience in the region, she more than makes up for in access to the White House," Lewis said. 
 
 Kennedy graduated from Harvard University and has a law degree from Columbia University. She and her husband, Edwin Schlossberg, have three children. 
 
 Contributing: David Jackson ||||| 2 days ago 
 
 Updated 5:14 p.m. ET on 7/24 
 
 
 
 (CNN) – Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of former President John F. Kennedy and a prominent Democratic backer, was nominated by President Barack Obama Wednesday to serve as U.S. ambassador to Japan. 
 
 She would become the first woman to hold the post if she's confirmed by the U.S. Senate. A top supporter of Obama's, she served as the co-chair of his vice presidential search committee in 2008. 
 
 
 
 CNN first reported in April that Kennedy had been asked to serve as ambassador and was being vetted for the role. 
 
 She's the only surviving member of JFK's immediate family and has largely shunned the limelight and scrutiny associated with her famous last name. After publicly expressing interest in running for the U.S. Senate seat in New York vacated when Hillary Clinton became secretary of state in 2009, she ultimately decided against making a bid, citing "personal reasons." 
 
 She made speeches at the 2008 and 2012 Democratic National Conventions, both times recalling her famous relatives – in 2008, her speech served as a tribute to her uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy, and in 2012 she noted that "like my father's election in 1960, this is one of those elections where the future of our country is at stake." 
 
 After receiving degrees at Harvard and Columbia, Kennedy served in a variety of roles at New York non-profits, including the John F. Kennedy Library and the American Ballet Theatre. 
 
 The current U.S. ambassador to Japan is John Roos, who assumed the role in 2009. He was the first American ambassador to attend commemoration ceremonies for the American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He also led America's embassy through the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and the ensuing nuclear aftermath. 
 
 The United States is Japan's largest economic partner as well as a military ally. The U.S. military presence on Japan's Okinawa Island has remained a point of diplomatic tension between the two nations. Some of the island's residents have complained about noise from the base, in an urban area. Many others were incensed by the misconduct of U.S. troops stationed there, including the 1995 rape of 12-year-old Japanese girl by three U.S. military personnel. 
 
 Opposition to the presence of U.S. troops in Okinawa runs so deep that it contributed to the resignation of former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in 2010. He had promised to move the base but later announced that the base would stay, a decision he called "heartbreaking."
– Caroline Kennedy is finally getting a high-profile thank-you for all the help she has given President Obama over the years: He nominated her to be the next ambassador to Japan today, reports CNN. Assuming the Senate goes along, JFK's 55-year-old daughter will become the first woman to hold the post. (The Washington Post reported a few months ago that the move was expected.) Given that the US is Japan's biggest economic partner and military ally, it's not exactly a token job, and USA Today finds a skeptic worried about Kennedy's lack of experience. "Japan is in real crisis right now," says the president of the Economic Strategic Institute. "We keep handicapping ourselves in our global diplomacy by putting people into positions who don't know anything about what they are doing." Still, she follows in the footsteps of her grandfather, Joseph, was served as ambassador to Britain.