A Tokyo tax bureau official has been reprimanded for illegally collecting personal information on people by pretending to be carrying out authorized tax investigations, sources said Monday.
The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau slapped the official with a reprimand and an undisclosed salary cut lasting three months, according to the sources.
Bureau inspectors turned the case over to prosecutors, but they decided not to file charges, the sources said.
The official, while working at a tax office in the western Tokyo suburb of Machida last year, illegally obtained personal data on acquaintances by applying to local governments and other authorities with some 20 fabricated official documents, according to the sources.
The official obtained copies of the acquaintances' family registers and certificates of residence, as well as personal information from the immigration office in Tokyo on a foreign friend of one acquaintance, they said.