Reemployment Conspiracy

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, or MEXT in its odd abbreviation, turned to be a great machine pushing its bureaucrats into universities in Japan, using influential power on subsidies for schools. The ministry has illegally recommended a former Chief of High School Education Bureau, Daisuke Yoshida, to Waseda University for its Professor and concealed the process of the reemployment. Vice-Minister of MEXT, Kihei Maekawa, decided to step down to take responsibility of the incident.

According to the reports, Yoshida was employed in Waseda University in October 2015, after retiring MEXT two months before, with organized efforts of recommendation. The officers in Human Resource Section of MEXT involved in offering resume of Yoshida to the university. Not only backed by the recommendation, Yoshida had contacts with the university before he left the ministry.

National Public Officers Act revised in 2008 prohibits public officers in Ministries recommending their workers or retirees to private sectors that have interest with their job. It was to maintain fairness in job market. But, MEXT has a power to decide which studies in universities should be subsidized. Universities need connection to the Ministry to receive public money from the government. Such reemployment is called “amakudari,” that means falling from the heaven.

While the government detected two cases of violation to revised National Public Officers Act, Yoshida’s case should be the first case in which an organization collectively involved in amakudari. Suffering from financial insufficiency, private universities like Waseda always need support from the government. Taking advantage of the weakness, bureaucrats in MEXT kept on pushing their retiree to private schools.

After further investigation, MEXT found 37 suspicious cases of recommended amakudari, 9 of which were determined to have been illegal. Human Resource Section made fake scenario that Yoshida was introduced by his predecessor who had been employed in the university after the retirement. Maekawa was also involved in that kind of recommendation.

Japan has been called the heaven for bureaucrats. Possessing large power and broad knowledge in policies, the officers in Ministries can have great influence even after the retirement. It is possible that MEXT has built a permanent system for their reemployment. That does not comply with the principle of Shinzo Abe administration, which upholds fair and active role of employers for further economic growth.