The Foreign Ministry, responding to a recent embezzlement scandal involving a senior ministry bureaucrat, has put together a package of measures designed to "reform" its secrecy-shrouded diplomatic war chest. The package falls far short of public expectations, largely because the ministry has not disclosed details about how the controversial fund is used.

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka has been trying hard to open the secret fund up to scrutiny, but without much success. The program, announced on Wednesday, calls for "diplomacy for the people and diplomacy attuned to the people." However, with the public kept in the dark about the fund -- the very source of the fraud scandal -- the appeal rings hollow.

The package represents only the beginning of the needed reform. The most important thing now is to restore public confidence in the Foreign Ministry. Mrs. Tanaka says she will take further disciplinary action against officials involved in the money scandal, but she has a more urgent need to address: giving the public a full accounting of how the fund is used.

The measures in the works are welcome nonetheless. First, all payments from the fund, hitherto made routinely, will now require approval by the minister. That will prevent bureaucrats from tapping the fund at their own discretion. In addition, the money already budgeted for in fiscal 2001 will be used more efficiently or saved. In fiscal 2002, a cut in the fund itself is promised, though by how much is not stated.

The current Foreign Ministry budget includes some 5.5 billion yen in discretionary funds. In addition, the Cabinet Secretariat has its own war chest of about 1.6 billion yen, part of which is reportedly used by the ministry. These appropriations, it should be noted, were approved without change despite the massive fund misuse that came to light in January.

The promises to save or slash spending are to be welcomed. The problem is that they are so vague that the public is left wondering whether the ministry is really willing to come clean about its confidential spending. The package itself says nothing about what kinds of spending will be slashed or saved, and what items will remain secret.

In the fraud case, something unprecedented in the ministry's history, an official in charge of VIP trips abroad allegedly used hundreds of millions of yen on personal expenditures, such as buying racehorses and condominiums. Nor is that all. Diplomatic officials abroad are suspected of misusing public money systematically, for example, to entertain visiting parliamentarians and bureaucrats.

The main reason for this, besides lax discipline, is that money from the discretionary fund is not accounted for. There is, of course, no legitimate reason to use taxpayers' money in this manner. Were it not for the fraud case, the practice would have continued to escape public attention. If the ministry is trying to preserve the fund more or less in its present form, the "reform" it is talking about will end up as an empty slogan.

In order to win public support, the ministry should explain in plain language what the "confidential diplomatic fund" is all about and why it is, or must be, handled the way it is. Unless and until it does, none of its promises is likely to convince a skeptical public.

The ministry says the public interest will be "impaired" if details are disclosed. But it does not need to disclose all the details, such as when and where the money was used and who spent it. There are other ways to explain, without impairing the national interest, how the money is used. The real question is whether the ministry is ready to make itself accountable for the uses of its confidential fund.

The reform package also calls for the appointment of outside accountants and the creation of a panel to make the Foreign Ministry more open. Again, these are steps in the right direction. The question is whether they will actually lead to the adequate disclosure of information. If they do not, the diplomatic fund will remain a "sanctuary" closed to public scrutiny.

That aside, the Cabinet Secretariat's confidential fund also needs unraveling. It reportedly has been used for a variety of dubious purposes, such as buying send-off gifts for parliamentarians leaving on overseas trips and footing bills for parliamentary activities aimed at promoting government-sponsored measures.

The overriding need here, as with the diplomatic fund, is to increase transparency in the use of taxpayers' money. Putting these shady funds in a fishbowl setting is one way to restore the public's trust in politics. Clearly, this is one vital area of reform in which Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi should demonstrate bold leadership.