A Japanese former bureaucrat will resign as an adviser to nuclear plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., the government said Tuesday, amid criticism of cozy ties between utilities and regulators.
Toru Ishida, the former director of the Natural Resources and Energy Agency, will quit his senior advisory post with TEPCO, the embattled operator of the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the government said.
"The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry informed the government that Mr. Ishida this morning expressed his intention to resign at the end of this month, citing personal reasons," said top government spokesman Yukio Edano.
The agency that Ishida headed until last August is part of the ministry.
The news came a day after Edano said the government would ask bureaucrats of the ministry, including those at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) and the resources and energy agency, not to take posts at utilities.
The measure was intended "to avoid causing public suspicion" about unhealthy ties between the companies and their watchdogs, Edano said Monday.
Ishida's career move, although legal, has been criticised as an example of a practice dubbed "amakudari" or "descent from heaven" in which retiring officials take well-paid posts at companies they previously supervised.
Concerns have been raised by Japanese media about close ties between TEPCO, which has been accused of safety breaches and cover-ups in the past, and other ex-bureaucrats who have taken posts with the company.
Ishida, who retired from the agency in August of last year, was hired by Japan's largest power utility firm in January.
Japanese media have also raised concerns about the fact that NISA, Japan's nuclear watchdog, and the energy agency, which promotes the use of nuclear power, are both under the umbrella of the trade and industry ministry.
A senior government official, who asked not to be named, has told AFP that the government has considered separating NISA from the ministry and integrating it with the Nuclear Safety Commission under the Cabinet Office.
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