Five sub-ministerial political appointees within the Foreign Ministry will each donate one month's allowance money to worthy causes as a form of punishment over the latest scandal to hit the ministry, Senior Vice Foreign Minister Seiken Sugiura said Thursday.
The two senior vice foreign ministers and three parliamentary foreign secretaries in question -- all of whom are legally forbidden from replenishing state coffers -- will each donate the cash to groups of their choice by means that will not violate the law, Sugiura said.
Sugiura told a news conference that this scenario reflected a "defect in the system."