Okamoto Appointed Japanese Vice Finance Minister

July 27, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso announced Friday that Shigeaki Okamoto, 57, director-general of the Finance Ministry's Budget Bureau, will be promoted to vice minister of finance, effective immediately.

The ministry's top administrative post had been vacant since Junichi Fukuda resigned in April over a sexual harassment scandal. Okamoto was long viewed as the most likely candidate for the post.

Takeshi Fujii, 55, senior deputy commissioner of the National Tax Agency, under the wing of the ministry, was promoted to commissioner after Nobuhisa Sagawa left the agency's top post in March over the ministry's manipulation of documents linked to the sale of state land at a huge discount to school operator Moritomo Gakuen.

The departures of Fukuda and Sagawa created vacancies in two of the ministry's three vice minister-class posts. The unusual situation ended after three months.

Speaking at his first news conference as vice minister, Okamoto promised to make his utmost efforts to restore the trust in the ministry that has been damaged by the scandals.

Okamoto was admonished in June over the document tampering scandal, because he was responsible for document management and parliamentary affairs as deputy vice minister when the Moritomo Gakuen-related documents were manipulated.

Okamoto said he was not aware of the problem at that time. "I take the matter seriously," he said, underscoring his resolve to work hard.

Aso also said that Financial Bureau Director-General Mitsuru Ota, 58, was appointed director-general of the Budget Bureau. Tetsuo Kabe, 55, deputy vice minister for policy planning and coordination, became director-general of the Financial Bureau.

Okamoto joined the ministry in 1983 and became Budget Bureau head in July 2017. Fujii started working at the ministry in 1985 and took up the tax agency's No. 2 post in July 2017.

Also on Friday, the ministry said it will set up a team to discuss measures to strengthen compliance with regulations following the recent sexual harassment and document tampering scandals.

The ministry invited Reiko Akiike of the Boston Consulting Group to join the team, which will be headed by Okamoto, to reflect the perspective of the private sector in the team's discussions.

"We will improve our compliance and internal control systems," Aso told a press conference. Jiji Press