'Amakudari' watchdog never had a chance

An office set up to control "amakudari," the notorious practice of setting up lucrative executive-level jobs for retiring bureaucrats in industries they once oversaw, was defanged before it even got off the ground, government sources said Tuesday.

Set up last December under the administration of then Prime Minister Taro Aso, the Center for Personnel Interchanges Between the Government and Private Entities is aimed at consolidating the "amakudari placement services" arranged by each ministry and agency overseeing the firms where the ex-bureaucrats landed. Amakudari literally means "descent from heaven."

The center was initially designed not to set up jobs at corporations that got more than ¥14 million to ¥16 million in public orders each year at the government's discretion.

But the limit was quietly raised to ¥100 million by the time the center was inaugurated, the sources said.