Editorial: Education ministry loses public trust as another top bureaucrat resigns
(Mainichi Japan)
TOKYO -- Kazuo Todani, administrative vice minister at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, has resigned in connection with bribery cases involving senior ministry officials.
In addition to Todani, the director-general of the Elementary and Secondary Education Bureau also tendered his resignation, while the head of the Higher Education Bureau was punished. Many senior ministry officials were found to have been wined and dined by the suspected briber in the cases.
In the scandals, a former director-general of the Science and Technology Policy Bureau was charged with receiving bribes by allegedly having his son accepted at Tokyo Medical University in return for favorable treatment of the institution in the selection of ministry subsidies for private universities. Another former director-general for international affairs was also indicted. The wining and dining of senior ministry officials emerged in an internal probe into those affairs.
Todani, the top bureaucrat at the ministry, is the second administrative vice minister in a row to resign following his immediate predecessor Kihei Maekawa. Maekawa stepped down last year over a ministry-wide effort to find jobs for retiring bureaucrats in industries they once regulated. The latest resignation deals a blow to the morale of ministry employees. Efforts must be made to quickly rebuild the organization.
Todani was winded and dined along with former Diet members at sessions costing more than 60,000 yen per person in 2015, when he was deputy minister of education, by a former consultant involved in the bribery cases. The director-general for elementary and secondary education who also stepped down was treated to food and drinks totaling 20,000 yen per person by the ex-consultant in 2017, when he was the deputy commissioner of the Japan Sports Agency.
The former consultant approached the bureaucrats with a business card indicating he was a policy adviser to a Diet member. He used the influence of the lawmaker to attract ministry officials. Todani said he was "naive" to think that there was nothing wrong with attending such events.
In all of the cases, politicians were involved. Bureaucrats are banned from receiving treatment beyond socially acceptable levels under ethics rules governing national public servants, even there is no conflict of interest.
If education ministry officials allowed themselves to be wined and dined in deference to the politicians, they were ignoring the ethics rules. They bear a grave responsibility for causing the public to lose trust in educational policy.
Many top officials at the education ministry were treated to expensive meals and drinks. A thorough investigation of what happened and measures to prevent a recurrence are needed.
Twenty years ago, incumbent officials of the then Finance Ministry were arrested in a corruption scandal involving excessive wining and dining. In response to those cases, the ethics rules for national public servants were introduced. With the passage of time, some bureaucrats seem to feel less bound by the rules. Bureaucrats are required to avoid all "appearance of evil" under those ethics guidelines. Being naive does not justify their actions.
One has to wonder if this laxness only exists in the education ministry. Perhaps other ministries and agencies should investigate to see if their officials are following the rules.
