OREANDA-NEWS Deputy Minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology of Japan Kazuo Todani resigned, taking the blame for the bribery scandals in the Department. His decision on Friday was approved at a meeting of the Japanese government.

In connection with the resignation and investigation of bribery cases, the Prosecutor's office conducted searches in Todani's office. Secretary General of the Japanese government Yoshihide Suga during a press conference on Friday called the resignation of Todani " extremely regrettable."

"This is extremely regrettable. It is necessary that the Ministry take all measures to prevent such cases in the future. We also need to work with the aim of regaining the confidence of society," - noted on a press-conferences in Tokyo the Secretary General of the Cabinet of Ministers of Japan Acehide Suga.

It is noteworthy that in the last two years this is the second case of the resignation of the Deputy Minister of culture against the background of various scandals around the Ministry.

 Todani took up his post in early 2017 after his predecessor Kihei Maekawa also resigned due to a scandal with the promotion of Department officials after their retirement to positions in educational institutions under state control. This time, the Deputy Minister took responsibility for two cases of bribes from officials of the Ministry, which were identified last summer.

According to the corruption perception index, Japan is on the 20th place in 2017, the US - on 19, Russia – on 141.

In late July, it became known that in China only for the first half of more than 36 thousand officials were punished for violating the rules of conduct for civil servants. Among the most common were unauthorized payment of premiums, as well as receiving gifts and using official cars for other purposes.