TOKYO, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Japan's education ministry said Tuesday it had uncovered 17 more fresh instances of its personnel illegally finding post-retirement positions for bureaucrats as the scope of the scandal continues to widen.
According to an interim report conducted by the ministry, as part of a deeper probe into its jobs placement racket, the number of "amakudari" cases now stands at 27.
Known colloquially here as "amakudari" and meaning a "decent from heaven" where bureaucrats are re-employed into comfortable jobs they once oversaw, the rising figures reveals the problem is endemic in at least the education ministry and possibly in other public sectors.
"This serves as evidence that the ministry has been systematically involved in violating regulations on re-employment," education minister Hirokazu Matsuno was quoted as telling a news conference Tuesday.
"There was a lack of awareness about legal compliance at the ministry," said Matsuno, who vowed to "rigorously punish those newly implicated."
"The scandal indicates the ministry deliberately circumvented the law and is serious enough to prompt a rebuilding of the ministry from scratch," another top ministry official was quoted as saying of the deeply-entrenched practice of "amakudari".
The illegal practice, it would seem, has not just remained specific to a single ministry or agency as Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday that he had launched an investigation into one of his ministry's former diplomats being given a cushy post-retirement position by the education ministry.
The practice of "amakudari" was effectively banned in 2007 when legislation was changed regarding the re-employment of civil servants, in part due to the potential for corruption. But those under investigation may have dodged the law by using retired civil servants to deal with the illegal job placements.
According to local media sources, the ministry's report identifies 16 ministry officials who had been engaged in the employment placement racket, and among the names were former vice minister Kihei Maekawa, who stepped down last month from the top bureaucratic spot over the scandal.
A list of prestigious universities has also been made available that have employed former ministry bureaucrats through the illegal scheme.
The ministry said it will, as part of its ongoing investigation, continue to investigate some 3,000 of those it still actively employs and 500 who have already retired.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered a government-wide investigation to find out how deeply-entrenched the illegal practice is within the public sector. Abe ordered the investigation after an initial probe into the ministry was made public in January.
Abe's top government spokesperson said the government has been ordered to "flush out" the issue from scratch.
"The government has been instructed by the prime minister to flush out the issue from scratch at all ministries and agencies, and we will completely explain the results of the full investigation to the public," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference Tuesday.
Suga added "it is unallowable and highly problematic for the authority in charge of education to have been entangled in the practice."
