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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Prohibit use of public-interest corporations for 'Amakudari': Akamine demands

At the House of Representatives Budget Committee on February 22, Japanese Communist Party Representative Akamine Seiken urged the Koizumi Government to prohibit bureaucrats from using public-interest corporations as a bridge to so-called ﾒAmakudariﾓ and to thoroughly investigate the cozy ties between bureaucrats and corporations in order to break them. ﾒAmakudariﾓ is the practice of allowing high level government bureaucrats to gain executive position in corporations after retirement. They then use their government connections to obtain decisions favorable to the corporation.

Akamine revealed that ex-officials of the Defense Agency have used 22 Defense Agency-supervised public-interest corporations as a ﾒstepping boardﾓ to take high positions in private corporations. His investigation found that 1,129 ex-officials of the agency and ex-high-ranking officials of the Self-Defense Forces belong to the corporations as of February 1, and 290 of them are corporate executives. They account for 49% of the total executives, and 28% of total corporate personnel.

In the Defense Facilities Administration Agency (DFAA) scandal, ex-officials had stayed for about two years in the Defense Facilities Technology Foundation, a public-interest corporation, and were re-hired by general contractor construction companies to work as intermediaries in bid-rigging schemes.
- Akahata February 23, 2006