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Introduction
Corruption, including post-war collusion among politicians, bureaucrats and the business sector as well as institutional corruption, is often identified as a trait unique to Japanese culture. However, a review of literature shows that research on corruption prevention measures in Japan is still minimal. While Japan is a country that is perceived to face fewer issues than others with its governance system, the efficiency of its governments and the quality of its civil servants, the moral and ethical values of the individuals participating in government, as well as structural issues, are viewed as the main causes of corruption in Japan. In this sense, addressing corruption by civil servants is an important factor in securing the public trust of civil servants and ultimately the government. The loss of public trust due to corruption scandals is considered a larger threat than any other potential losses, and governments have striven to build public trust by promoting their post-scandal efforts to rectify the system. In the absence of a comprehensive corruption prevention law and anti-corruption law, or any specialized anti-corruption institutions, tackling corruption in Japan is focused on reducing opportunities for corrupt practices in government institutions by increasing transparency and accountability, strengthening the public monitoring system through a variety of laws aligning measures from multiple dimensions, educating civil servants, reinforcing the supervisory roles of managers and implementing strict penalties.
This paper is divided into five sections. The first section describes the specific characteristics of corruption in Japan, and provides data on corruption incidents, and the framework of systems and laws to prevent corruption. The second section describes and evaluates the effectiveness of the corruption prevention measures. The third section analyzes how the amakudari system (a post-retirement job replacement service within the government personnel management) contributes to the “iron triangle” of collusion (the relationship between politicians, bureaucrats and the business sector), and examines recent efforts for its reform. The fourth section focuses on the awareness of corruption issues from the perspective of public trust in the government. The overly optimistic perception of corruption and misconduct issues are exhibited through perception and awareness studies. The fifth section makes an overall assessment of corruption prevention and summarizes its characteristics. This paper concludes by contemplating whether the Japanese way could be adopted...