TOKYO, Jan 28: Elite Japanese bank officials called "MOF-tan", responsible for contacts with the powerful ministry of finance, have come under fire after two ministry bureaucrats were arrested for allegedly accepting bribes.The scandal has also prompted banks to consider abolishing the post of MOF-tan, established decades ago to gather information about MOF's banking policies.The term combines the ministry's acronym with part of the Japanese word "tanto", meaning "person in charge".
In high-profile raids at ministry headquarters on Monday, two officials at MOF's inspection section were arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes from banks.The scandal forced finance minister Hiroshi Mitsuzuka to step down on Wednesday.Naotaka Saeki, chairman of the Federation of Bankers Associations of Japan and himself a former MOF-tan, told reporters on Tuesday that he planned to raise within the banking industry the issue of how to handle relations with ministry officials.
"There is a proposal to abolish the system ofMOF liaison posts... As an individual bank, we will deal with the issue after completing our investigation of the case. We will also raise the issue within the federation," he said.He added that as Japan's financial deregulation progressed, the need for MOF-tans was declining.Saeki is also president of Sanwa Bank Ltd, which was involved in the bribery case with three other banks -- Asahi Bank Ltd, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank Ltd and the collapsed Hokkaido Takushoku Bank Ltd.
Sanwa and the other banks have been accused by prosecutors of lavishly entertaining MOF officials to obtain information about impending inspections, and press reports have given lurid details about the various forms of entertainment offered.The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on Tuesday that a MOF official who was arrested in the scandal urged Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank officials to take him to a restaurant in a Tokyo red-light district where the waitresses wore no underwear.
The souces said MOF-tan, usually 30- to 40-years-old, are oftengraduates of Japan's prestigious Tokyo University, making it easier to gain trust from elite MOF officials who also tend to be Tokyo University alumni.The job of the MOF-tan had once been to maintain contacts with MOF officials in the banking bureau to obtain information about banking policies and to gain favour, industry sources said.
They added that after the bursting of Japan's asset price bubble in the early 1990s, however, the focus shifted to learning the dates of forthcoming ministry inspections, as Japanese banks tried to hide problem loans from ministry inspectors.Sanwa's Saeki said that when he dealt with MOF officials he did not see wining and dining as bribes because such entertainment was customary in Japan.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
