The government on Monday announced recipients of its biannual awards, with nonpublic officials accounting for a record high 35 percent of the 4,624 Japanese honored.

Also receiving awards this spring are 32 foreigners, the government said.

The highest decoration this spring, the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun, went to seven people, including five members of the House of Representatives and Shoichiro Toyoda, 77, former chairman of Japan's top automaker Toyota Motor Corp., the Cabinet Office said.