Government offices and many companies were open Monday for the last time of the year, with many hoping for a better year ahead after a turbulent past 12 months, including a number of scandals that rocked the country.
Fewer people than usual headed to ministries and agencies in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki district in the morning because many central government workers opted to take their year-end holidays.
With the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry hit by a data breach in the Japan Pension Service that led to personal data for 1 million people being leaked, as well as a bribery scandal involving one of its officials, a bureaucrat in his 20s said the ministry was "often in the spotlight in a negative sense."