Chiefs of the Osaka Regional Correction Bureau engaged in shady accounting practices over five years up to March 31, 2002, according to copies of bureau accounting records obtained Monday by Kyodo News.
The documents, which cover fiscal 1997 through fiscal 2001, indicate the bureau chiefs made out self-addressed invoices for "research" budgets, approved these requests, received the money and issued self-addressed receipts.
Officials at the bureau said there is nothing wrong with how these bureau heads approved so-called research expenses, which are often used to pay informants.
However, the latest revelations come on the heels of admissions by the Justice Ministry that its regional correction bureaus, which have jurisdiction over prisons and detention houses, have in the past used research funds to pay mobsters in an effort to deter gang warfare at these facilities. Against such a backdrop, such shoddy accounting practices may also be more closely scrutinized, observers said.