Toshiro Muto, director of the Finance Ministry's secretariat, will be demoted Tuesday to take responsibility for a bribery scandal involving ministry officials, Finance Minister Hikaru Matsunaga said Friday.
Muto offered to resign in late April after Matsunaga punished 112 ministry officials for accepting excessive entertainment from private financial institutions. Matsunaga kept Muto at his post to handle questions from politicians during the Diet session, Matsunaga told reporters.
Now that parliamentary questions on the issue appear to be completed, Matsunaga said he has decided to demote Muto but not let him go. Zenbei Mizoguchi, deputy vice minister of Policy Coordination, will be promoted to replace Muto, Matsunaga said. Muto will take Mizoguchi's post.