TOKYO (Reuters) - Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group said on Wednesday it has picked Kanetsugu Mike, the head of its core commercial banking unit, as its next president and CEO as Japan's largest lender accelerates efforts to expand overseas.

Current CEO Nobuyuki Hirano will become chairman and Mike will also continue to serve as chief of the commercial banking unit, MUFG Bank, the company said in a statement. The top management changes will take place in April.

Joining what is today's MUFG in 1979, Mike, 62, spent about half of his nearly four-decade career outside Japan and became CEO of MUFG Bank last year in the wake of his predecessor's sudden resignation for health reasons.

The company also announced Chief Information Officer Hironori Kamezawa will become deputy president.

Hirano, who has led the banking group since 2013, has been credited with growing MUFG in a tightly controlled manner. He expanded the Japanese lender's successful tie-up with Morgan Stanley in the years after MUFG invested $9 billion in the Wall Street bank in 2008.

(Reporting by Taiga Uranaka and Chris Gallagher; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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