Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto on Thursday unveiled plans to establish a new forum of exchanges between the Finance Ministry and the nation's financial firms as a way to cut down on corruption.
As the bribery scandal involving Finance Ministry bureaucrats and four major commercial banks rumbles on, Hashimoto told the Diet he will create a "liaison conference" between the ministry and financial firms in which the two sides exchange information and opinions on a regular basis.
The forum would be an alternative to the ministry's current method of collecting information from the industry in which its mandarins are separately wined and dined by industry executives. Hashimoto hopes the forum would make relations between the ministry and industry fairer and transparent.