The Diet's system of public secretaries -- which allows each legislator to hire three aides at taxpayers' expense -- has proven to be deeply flawed, as shown by a recent spate of pay scandals in which a number of legislators were accused of misusing their secretaries' salaries. Now, belatedly, the ruling and opposition parties have put together a reform package designed to close the system's loopholes.
The package is designed to eliminate a root cause of pay embezzlement: the widespread practice among Diet members of hiring their relatives as public secretaries. The plan in the works would bar legislators from employing spouses as public secretaries. This does not go far enough, however, because it leaves the door open for the employment of other relatives, such as sons and daughters.
Public secretaries, classified as special national civil servants, are paid from state coffers. As such, they also serve the legislature, not just individual legislators. It can be argued, therefore, that the hiring of "kinship secretaries" should be prohibited without exception. A total prohibition is preferable as it would prevent pay fraud and help restore the public's confidence in politics.