The Diet enacted a new law Wednesday making it illegal for lawmakers to hire their spouses as state-paid secretaries, following a series of embezzlement scandals involving politicians.
The law still allows them to hire their parents and offspring as aides on the state payroll and does not ban donations from secretaries paid by the government, casting doubt on its effectiveness in preventing graft.
Lawmakers have been registering people as their public secretaries without having them do any real work and then pocketing their salaries.
The new law also prohibits state-paid aides from working in other jobs except when granted approval from lawmakers.
It also bars lawmakers from newly employing people aged 65 or older as state-paid aides, and stipulates that the full payment of salaries be made directly to the secretaries.