The Foreign Ministry on Thursday fired an official who had been indicted earlier in the day for allegedly padding hotel bills and swindling the government out of public money, Deputy Vice Foreign Minister Kyoji Komachi said.
Dismissed in disgrace was Akio Asakawa, 56, a former assistant director at the First West Europe Division of the ministry's European Affairs Bureau. Asakawa handled logistics work for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Osaka in 1995.
He was arrested Sept. 6 on suspicion of defrauding the government in March 1996 of 423 million yen by padding hotel bills.