Japan bars officials (industry regulators) from utility jobs

[jpak]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9af19b4c-6995-11e0-826b-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1JsdkRLl3

Japan will restrict senior industry regulators from taking jobs at power companies, in response to criticism that the practice compromised safety and contributed to the country’s worst ever nuclear accident.

Yukio Edano, chief cabinet secretary, said the government would ask senior bureaucrats at the ministry of economy, trade and industry, which regulates the electricity sector, to temporarily refrain from taking posts at power companies “in order not to raise the public’s suspicions”.

The decision follows widespread public criticism that the regulator’s close ties with Tokyo Electric Power prevented it from properly regulating the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and has leaked radioactive material into the atmosphere and sea.

Although it is only a request, the government expects the officials to avoid a practice that is known in other countries as the “revolving-door”, with senior officials leaving government to take up better-paid jobs in the industry they have previously regulated.

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