Under pressure from the opposition camp, Prime Minister Taro Aso said Thursday that he will immediately ban the little-known custom of "watari," in which ministries can arrange new jobs multiple times at related corporations for retiring bureaucrats.
The government has set up a public-private personnel exchange promotion center intended to unify all the ministries' outplacement efforts within three years and limit postretirement job placements to once per each retired public servant.
Retired officials who hop from place to place reaping lucrative jobs and benefits at government-linked companies are coming under fire from the public, which has dubbed them as "watari" (migrators).