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Japan PM Ishiba at ceremony

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba addresses a ceremony for bureaucrats newly tasked with solving problems hampering regional revitalization at the premier's official residence in Tokyo on April 9, 2025. (Pool photo)

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Japan PM Ishiba at ceremony

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (front row, C) poses for photos at a ceremony for bureaucrats newly tasked with solving problems hampering regional revitalization at the premier's official residence in Tokyo on April 9, 2025. (Pool photo)

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Japan PM Ishiba at ceremony

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (L, standing) attends a ceremony for bureaucrats newly tasked with solving problems hampering regional revitalization at the premier's official residence in Tokyo on April 9, 2025. (Pool photo)

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Students Protests In Dhaka.

Anti-fascist Students Block An Intersection Demanding The Removal Of Bureaucrats Loyal To Autocratic Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Government, In Dhaka, Bangladesh, On March 16, 2025(Photo by Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto)

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Students Protests In Dhaka.

Anti-fascist Students Block An Intersection Demanding The Removal Of Bureaucrats Loyal To Autocratic Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Government, In Dhaka, Bangladesh, On March 16, 2025(Photo by Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto)

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Students Protests In Dhaka.

Anti-fascist Students Block An Intersection Demanding The Removal Of Bureaucrats Loyal To Autocratic Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Government, In Dhaka, Bangladesh, On March 16, 2025(Photo by Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto)

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Students Protests In Dhaka.

Anti-fascist Students Block An Intersection Demanding The Removal Of Bureaucrats Loyal To Autocratic Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Government, In Dhaka, Bangladesh, On March 16, 2025(Photo by Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto)

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Students Protests In Dhaka.

Anti-fascist Students Block An Intersection Demanding The Removal Of Bureaucrats Loyal To Autocratic Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Government, In Dhaka, Bangladesh, On March 16, 2025(Photo by Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto)

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Students Protests In Dhaka.

Anti-fascist Students Block An Intersection Demanding The Removal Of Bureaucrats Loyal To Autocratic Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Government, In Dhaka, Bangladesh, On March 16, 2025(Photo by Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto)

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Students Protests In Dhaka.

Anti-fascist Students Block An Intersection Demanding The Removal Of Bureaucrats Loyal To Autocratic Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Government, In Dhaka, Bangladesh, On March 16, 2025(Photo by Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto)

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Students Protests In Dhaka.

Anti-fascist Students Block An Intersection Demanding The Removal Of Bureaucrats Loyal To Autocratic Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Government, In Dhaka, Bangladesh, On March 16, 2025(Photo by Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto)

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Students Protests In Dhaka.

Anti-fascist Students Block An Intersection Demanding The Removal Of Bureaucrats Loyal To Autocratic Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Government, In Dhaka, Bangladesh, On March 16, 2025(Photo by Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto)

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Students Protests In Dhaka.

Anti-fascist Students Block An Intersection Demanding The Removal Of Bureaucrats Loyal To Autocratic Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Government, In Dhaka, Bangladesh, On March 16, 2025(Photo by Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto)

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Students Protests In Dhaka.

Anti-fascist Students Block An Intersection Demanding The Removal Of Bureaucrats Loyal To Autocratic Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Government, In Dhaka, Bangladesh, On March 16, 2025(Photo by Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto)

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Students Protests In Dhaka.

Anti-fascist Students Block An Intersection Demanding The Removal Of Bureaucrats Loyal To Autocratic Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Government, In Dhaka, Bangladesh, On March 16, 2025(Photo by Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto)

E

Students Protests In Dhaka.

Anti-fascist students block an intersection demanding the removal of bureaucrats loyal to the autocratic former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on March 16, 2025. (Photo by Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto)

E

Students Protests In Dhaka.

Anti-fascist Students Block An Intersection Demanding The Removal Of Bureaucrats Loyal To Autocratic Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Government, In Dhaka, Bangladesh, On March 16, 2025(Photo by Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto)

E

Students Protests In Dhaka.

Anti-fascist Students Block An Intersection Demanding The Removal Of Bureaucrats Loyal To Autocratic Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Government, In Dhaka, Bangladesh, On March 16, 2025(Photo by Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto)

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Students Protests In Dhaka.

Anti-fascist Students Block An Intersection Demanding The Removal Of Bureaucrats Loyal To Autocratic Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Government, In Dhaka, Bangladesh, On March 16, 2025(Photo by Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto)

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Students Protests In Dhaka.

Anti-fascist Students Block An Intersection Demanding The Removal Of Bureaucrats Loyal To Autocratic Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Government, In Dhaka, Bangladesh, On March 16, 2025(Photo by Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto)

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Viktor Orban Accuses Journalists Of Using American Money - Budapest

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced that his government will send a commissioner to the United States to gather information on American funds flowing to Hungary's "pseudo-civil public organizations." Speaking in his state-of-the-nation address (SONA) on Saturday, Orban claimed that these funds have been used to "buy journalists, judges and prosecutors, politicians, foundations, bureaucrats" and to impose what he described as "a liberal dictatorship of opinion" across the Western world, on February 22, 2025, in Budapest, Hungary. Photo by Zoltan Fischer/MTI via Xinhua/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Viktor Orban Accuses Journalists Of Using American Money - Budapest

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced that his government will send a commissioner to the United States to gather information on American funds flowing to Hungary's "pseudo-civil public organizations." Speaking in his state-of-the-nation address (SONA) on Saturday, Orban claimed that these funds have been used to "buy journalists, judges and prosecutors, politicians, foundations, bureaucrats" and to impose what he described as "a liberal dictatorship of opinion" across the Western world, on February 22, 2025, in Budapest, Hungary. Photo by Zoltan Fischer/MTI via Xinhua/ABACAPRESS.COM

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218 SDF members, defense bureaucrats disciplined over scandals

TOKYO, Japan, July 12 Kyodo - Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara holds a press conference at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on July 12, 2024, after the ministry disciplined 218 Self-Defense Forces members and senior bureaucrats in connection with a spate of issues including the mishandling of classified information. (Kyodo)

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218 SDF members, defense bureaucrats disciplined over scandals

Adm. Ryo Sakai, chief of staff of Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, apologizes during a press conference at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on July 12, 2024, after 218 Self-Defense Forces members and senior bureaucrats were disciplined by the ministry in connection with a spate of issues including the mishandling of classified information.

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218 SDF members, defense bureaucrats disciplined over scandals

Adm. Ryo Sakai, chief of staff of Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, holds a press conference at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on July 12, 2024, after the ministry disciplined 218 Self-Defense Forces members and senior bureaucrats in connection with a spate of issues including the mishandling of classified information.

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218 SDF members, defense bureaucrats disciplined over scandals

Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara apologizes during a press conference at the ministry in Tokyo on July 12, 2024, after it disciplined 218 Self-Defense Force members and senior bureaucrats in connection with a spate of issues including the mishandling of classified information.

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218 SDF members, defense bureaucrats disciplined over scandals

Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara holds a press conference at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on July 12, 2024, after the ministry disciplined 218 Self-Defense Forces members and senior bureaucrats in connection with a spate of issues including the mishandling of classified information.

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Watanabe retained for breaking resistance against amakudari control

TOKYO, Japan - Yoshimi Watanabe, who was retained as administrative reform minister in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's reshuffled Cabinet, speaks at a press conference on Aug. 27. Watanabe broke bureaucrats' resistance and pushed through legislation against the practice of ''amakudari'' in which bureaucrats take postretirement jobs at entities related to the sectors they oversaw.

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Supporters of Chinese rights advocate on trial

BEIJING, China - Supporters of Xu Zhiyong, a prominent Chinese human rights activist, hold a banner calling for the disclosure of bureaucrats' assets on Jan. 22, 2014, near a court in Beijing as the first hearing for Xu was held there. The activist is charged with disrupting public order for his role in protests against corruption.

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Imperial garden party

TOKYO, Japan - Emperor Akihito (pictured from behind) and Empress Michiko (next to emperor) talk with Olympic wrestling gold medalist Saori Yoshida during a party at Tokyo's Akasaka Imperial Garden on Oct. 25, 2012. Around 1,700 people, including lawmakers, top bureaucrats and a wide range of celebrities, attended the garden party hosted by the imperial couple.

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New nuclear regulatory body

TOKYO, Japan - Protesters hold placards and banners in front of the building (back) housing the Nuclear Regulation Authority in Tokyo on Sept. 19, 2012. The protesters criticized the authority, launched the same day, because it includes people from the "nuclear village" -- referring to the close-knit community of bureaucrats, utility officials and academics with vested interests in promoting atomic power.

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Japan to send chopper unit to flood-hit Pakistan

TOKYO, Japan - Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa (R, standing) addresses a meeting with defense bureaucrats and Self-Defense Force leaders at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on Aug. 20, 2010. Kitazawa ordered the Ground Self-Defense Force the same day to dispatch a helicopter unit to flood-hit Pakistan.

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Itochu adviser Niwa to become Japan's new envoy to China

TOKYO, Japan - Uichiro Niwa (file photo), adviser to major trading house Itochu Corp., will be appointed as Japan's new ambassador to China, possibly later this month, government sources said on June 7, 2010. Niwa will be the first ambassador appointed to one of Japan's key partners not drawn from the ranks of former bureaucrats.

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Gov't begins 2nd round of debate to review gov't programs

TOKYO, Japan - Cabinet minister Yukio Edano (standing), who heads the Government Revitalization Unit, speaks during the second round of public debate with bureaucrats to streamline the government in Tokyo on April 23, 2010. The unit will target programs of independent administrative institutions often criticized for providing cushy post-retirement jobs to senior bureaucrats.

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Hatoyama delivers 1st speech to parliament

TOKYO, Japan - Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama delivers his first speech to parliament since taking office at the outset of an extraordinary session in the plenary room of the House of Representatives in Tokyo on Oct. 26, 2009. He vowed afresh to cut administrative waste and wrest power from bureaucrats.

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Top bureaucrats hold presumably last agenda-setting meeting

TOKYO, Japan - Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Iwao Uruma, the chair of twice-weekly meetings of administrative vice ministers, speaks at a news conference at the prime minister's office in Tokyo on Sept. 14 after the top bureaucrats held their last meeting under the government of Prime Minister Taro Aso. The Democratic Party of Japan, which is set to form a coalition government on Sept. 16, advocates abolishing the meetings to give elected officials greater decision-making power.

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Mitarai not against DPJ pledge to shift power from bureaucrats

TOKYO, Japan - Fujio Mitarai, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, also known as Nippon Keidanren, speaks in an interview with Kyodo News and other media organizations in Tokyo on Sept. 2.

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DPJ pledges government not led by bureaucrats

TOKYO, Japan - Yukio Hatoyama, president of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, holds up the party's manifesto for the Aug. 30 general election during a press conference at the DPJ's headquarters in Tokyo on July 27.

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DPJ pledges government not led by bureaucrats

TOKYO, Japan - Yukio Hatoyama, president of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, holds up the party's manifesto for the Aug. 30 general election during a press conference at the DPJ's headquarters in Tokyo on July 27.

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'Amakudari' arrangement to be banned by end of year

TOKYO, Japan - Prime Minister Taro Aso speaks at a House of Representatives Budget Committee session Feb. 3. Aso expressed intent to forbid ministries and agencies to play a mediatory role in finding postretirement jobs for their career-track bureaucrats in the so-called ''amakudari'' practice by the end of this year.

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'Amakudari' arrangement to be banned by end of year

TOKYO, Japan - Prime Minister Taro Aso speaks at a House of Representatives Budget Committee session Feb. 3. Aso expressed intent to forbid ministries and agencies to play a mediatory role in finding postretirement jobs for their career-track bureaucrats in the so-called ''amakudari'' practice by the end of this year.

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1,402 bureaucrats received favors from cabbies, 151 punished

TOKYO, Japan - Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura speaks at a news conference at the prime minister's office in Tokyo on June 25. Machimura said that a total of 1,402 ministry and agency bureaucrats have received favors in such forms as cash and cans of beer from taxi drivers when being taxied home late at night after work using taxpayer money, adding that the government has punished 151 of them.

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Business leader not to take immediate action on 'amakudari'

TOKYO, Japan - Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, speaks at a press conference in Tokyo on July 11. Okuda said he will not take immediate action to prohibit retired top-ranking bureaucrats from working for private companies they previously supervised.

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Koizumi tells new bureaucrats to revitalize gov't

TOKYO, Japan - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi addresses some 720 newly hired government officials at a ceremony in Tokyo on April 2, telling them to strive to overcome bureaucratic stagnation and revitalize the administration.

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Kawaguchi to hear from 20 bureaucrats suspected of Suzuki ties

TOKYO, Japan - Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi is surrounded by reporters in the Diet building in Tokyo on March 18. Kawaguchi said she plans to hear from some 20 diplomats believed to have had close ties with scandal-hit lawmaker Muneo Suzuki and make personnel changes based on the findings by the end of this month.

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Kawaguchi emphasizes clean money handling

TOKYO, Japan - Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi addresses a gathering of senior bureaucrats of her ministry Feb. 5. Kawaguchi told them to be careful about handling taxpayers money, following revelations in 2001 of a series of scandals involving misuse of public funds by ministry officials

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Koizumi defend 'tears' remark

TOKYO, Japan - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi speaks in reply to opposition questions at a House of Councillors Budget Committee session Jan. 30. The premier defended a remark he made on Jan. 25 on women's tears as the ''truth'' after some lawmakers called it sexist. ''Tears are women's greatest weapons. When women cry, men cannot compete with them,'' Koizumi said of former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka, who had tears in her eyes at the Diet after talks about her feud with bureaucrats in her ministry.

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Ruling parties ram 2nd extra budget through Diet panel

TOKYO, Japan - Ruling coalition lawmakers stand to indicate their approval of a 2.5 trillion yen extra budget on the night of Jan. 28 in the House of Representatives Budget Committee. They ignored a boycott of the session by opposition legislators over inconsistencies in testimonies by Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka and top Foreign Ministry bureaucrats regarding whether political pressure led to the exclusion of two Japanese nongovernmental organizations from last week's Afghan donor conference in Tokyo.

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Koizumi rules out a cabinet reshuffle

TOKYO, Japan - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi listens as Yoshito Sengoku, a lawmaker from the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, puts questions during a House of Representatives plenary session Nov. 9, 2001. Koizumi reiterated he is not planning a cabinet reshuffle to replace Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka, who is often seen at odds with her ministry's bureaucrats.

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Tanaka still tangling with bureaucrats over policy matters

TOKYO, Japan - Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka skims through the papers in her seat in the House of Representatives on Oct. 30. Tanaka continues her battle with ministry bureaucrats over personnel changes and policy matters, complaining that they have been unable to meet her demands.