As the No. 2 at the Japan Highway Public Corp., the unidentified bureaucrat wielded enormous power over Japan's major road-builders.
When he retired in 1990, he did what any top-ranking Japanese mandarin might have done: He went looking for a cushy private-sector post at a company he had once regulated.
The tradition, known as "amakudari," or descent from heaven, has long cemented the bond between Japan's public and private sectors -- and allowed bureaucrats to cash in on their clout after years of serving the government.