The Finance Ministry dismissed two bank inspectors who were indicted Monday on charges of receiving bribes from banks in exchange for tipoffs about the ministry's pending inspections, Vice Finance Minister Koji Tanami said at a news conference.
"It is quite regrettable that the two inspectors hurt public confidence in the Finance Ministry, and we will make utmost efforts to regain the public's trust," Tanami said Monday. "I sincerely apologize to the Japanese people for the bribery scandal involving our officials," Tanami said.
The ministry communicated with the two inspectors, who are under arrest, at the detention house last weekend, and both admitted receiving bribes, a ministry official said. "They accepted the disciplinary measure against them," the official said.
The inspectors are Koichi Miyakawa, former head of the financial inspectors' office of the ministry's Financial Inspection Department, and Toshimi Taniuchi, former chief of the management section in the same department.
The ministry has dismissed only three other officials linked to fraud and bribery since World War II, the official said. "The Finance Ministry will take disciplinary measures against their superiors for failing to supervise them properly, after they are indicted again," Finance Minister Hikaru Matsunaga said.