The arrests last week of senior officials of the Defense Facilities Administration Agency (DFAA) confirmed that bid-rigging on public-works projects remains an entrenched practice in Japan. What happens, basically, is that a contract is awarded at a price higher than if it were put out to bid through fair competition. The successful bidder (or bidders) makes unfair gains at the expense of taxpayers' money. Moreover, bid collusion at the initiative of bureaucrats undermines confidence in public administration. It is a foul crime that must be punished more severely.

Arrested last week were a technical councilor, his predecessor and an inspection officer at the DFAA. They are charged with obstructing competitive bidding, or colluding with bidders, on projects to install air-conditioning systems at a Ground Self-Defense Force hospital and a DFAA office in Tokyo. Prosecutors suspect that the trio repeatedly used their influence for the benefit of selected bidders -- a practice known as kansei dango (bureaucrat-led prebidding collusion).

The technical councilor, the highest-ranking technocrat of the DFAA, is the third-highest official at that agency. His arrest suggests strongly that he and his predecessors have broken the law systemically over the years in return for favors from private contractors -- a much more serious crime than lower-ranking officials' embezzlement of taxpayer money for wining and dining expenses.