It used to be said that Japanese bureaucrats were first rate while politicians were third rate. That's no longer true, as evidenced by an appalling spate of scandals involving slush funds in the central and local governments.
Some time ago the news media exposed the existence of slush funds at the Foreign Ministry, health ministry, and prefectural police departments across the nation.
Recently officials of the Gifu prefectural government have taken the brunt of criticism over off-the-book funds they created. A special audit committee of outside experts revealed early this month that secret funds set up for 12 years beginning in fiscal 1992 totaled a staggering 1.7 billion yen.