The education ministry's top bureaucrat is set to resign following his alleged involvement in illegally securing a senior official a post-retirement university job, a senior ministry official said Thursday.
An inquiry into the case against Administrative Vice Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Kihei Maekawa also found evidence that the practice was widespread.
According to sources close to the matter, the probe centered on claims that the ministry's human resources division gave information to Tokyo's Waseda University about the director general of its higher education bureau, who was hired by the university in a so-called amakudari (descent from heaven) appointment after retiring in 2015.