The education ministry had established a systematic practice for seeking new jobs for retiring bureaucrats via a retired official by around 2013, education minister Hirokazu Matsuno disclosed Monday in a preliminary report on the amakudari scandal.

¡°We will continue our investigation into the people involved and how they saw the situation so we can understand how the mediation worked,¡± Matsuno said. ¡°I¡¯d like to continue learning more thorough the investigation.¡±

Amakudari (literally ¡°descent from heaven¡°) is Japan¡¯s long-ingrained but ethically dubious practice of retired bureaucrats acquiring lucrative jobs in sectors they once oversaw.