Two Finance Ministry inspection officials were reprimanded July 29 for playing free golf and eating free meals with Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank employees in the months following a ministry probe of the bank in 1994.

The two officials, Motoo Kusakabe and Hirokazu Miyagawa, were members of the ministry's Financial Inspection Department and were handling the Dai-Ichi Kangyo probe at the time. It was only July 25 that the ministry filed its first-ever criminal complaint with prosecutors against the bank and four of its former employees. The nation's second largest bank in terms of deposits stands accused of violating the Banking Law by falsifying reports for the ministry inspections. The Tokyo Summary Court applied a 500,000 yen fine July 28.

According to ministry officials, Kusakabe had lunch with two Dai-Ichi Kangyo officials around November 1994 and dinner with four of the bank's employees around late January 1995. On neither occasion did he pay his portion of the bill. Miyagawa, meanwhile, played golf for free in early January 1995 with two bank officials. He also went to view a factory run by a chemical firm to which the bank had extended loans, after which beer and light snacks were offered on the return bus trip.

One of the Dai-Ichi Kangyo officials involved was a former executive who was also named in the ministry's criminal complaint. Both received disciplinary punishment in the form of a strict verbal warning, according to Hiroshi Watanabe, head of the ministry's Secretarial Division.

Eight other ministry officials who visited the factory at the same time were issued warnings to be more cautious. Current Vice Finance Minister Takeshi Komura, who was deputy vice minister at the time, was issued a written warning.