Kazuo Todani, the education ministry's top bureaucrat, stepped down Friday to take the blame for bribery scandals that embroiled senior officials there, making him the second vice education minister to leave the post in less than two years.
His departure came after two officials were arrested and indicted over separate bribery cases recently. In one case, Futoshi Sano, a former director-general of the science and technology bureau, was arrested for allegedly helping Tokyo Medical University secure a government subsidy in exchange for a place at the institution for his son.
In January last year, Todani, 61, entered the top post after Kihei Maekawa quit when the ministry's systematic amakudari placements came to light. Amakudari, meaning "descent from heaven," is a practice in which officials illegally land lucrative postretirement jobs at institutions they once supervised. The long-standing practice has stirred a public outcry.