Japan Press Weekly

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2017 January 18 - 24 [POLITICS]

Education Ministry illegally offers ‘parachuting’ support to its retired officials

The Education Ministry was found to have systematically helped its retired officials to find jobs in the private sector in violation of the law.

A Cabinet Office committee on January 20 admitted to this as fact in its report. According to the committee overseeing bureaucrats’ “parachuting” activities, a group of Education Ministry officials violated the Government Officials Act which prohibits government ministries from systematically providing placement services for their retiring bureaucrats and bans bureaucrats from conducting job-hunting activities while still in government service.

On the same day, Education Ministry Administrative Vice Minister Maekawa Kihei announced his resignation after the Cabinet Office committee acknowledged his involvement in the illegal act. Education Minister Matsuno Hirokazu will return the equivalent of six months’ salary to the national treasury, taking his responsibility for supervising ministry officials.

The Committee report mentions the case in which Yoshida Daisuke, former chief of the ministry’s Higher Education Bureau, became a professor at Waseda University. According to the report, the ministry’s personnel division in 2015 helped Yoshida prepare his resume, sent it to Waseda University on behalf of Yoshida, and arranged interview sessions. The former top-level bureaucrat was interviewed by university officials just two days after his retirement and obtained a position as professor two months later.

The report also points out that Maekawa, while serving as Deputy Minister in 2015 and 2016, illegally acted as an intermediary between the bureaucrat and the university. Suspecting that there are more illegalities regarding “parachuting” activities, the report urges the Education Ministry to reveal the whole picture.

In fiscal 2015, 13 former education bureaucrats were hired by universities and other private organizations on the very day following their retirement, Akahata reported on January 23. Of all 47 former Education Ministry officials who succeeded in parachuting to the private sector in that fiscal year, 26 obtained new posts within one month and 35 within two months. This strongly suggests that many retired bureaucrats benefited from the ministry’s illegal acts of providing replacement services.