The telecommunications ministry has sacked Yasuhiko Taniwaki, vice minister for policy coordination, a senior bureaucrat at the center of the growing wining and dining scandal that has rocked the ministry.

Taniwaki is one of the officials who were treated to expensive meals not only by the company that employs Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s eldest son but also by telecommunications giant NTT group.

His dismissal came after the ministry’s in-house investigation has confirmed fresh revelations concerning the scandal made public by the weekly Shukan Bunshun last week.

The ministry failed to uncover Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.’s involvement in the scandal through its inquiry last month.

The scandal was triggered by the magazine’s report saying Taniwaki and other ministry officials were wined and dined many times by Tohokushinsha Film Corp. executives including Suga’s son, in violation of the ethics code for government employees.

Continued efforts must be made to unearth all the facts of the seemingly cozy relationships between the ministry officials in charge of regulating the telecom and broadcast industries and companies in these sectors.

Before he was removed from his post, Taniwaki was punished with a pay cut for being illegally entertained by Tohokushinsha, which is in the satellite broadcasting business. NTT is a major stakeholder that has a direct interest in currying favor with the ministry, which has the power to supervise its management and issue orders for specific actions.

The revelations about how these firms lavished entertainment on these officials cast doubt on the fairness of the ministry’s policy decisions and actions.

Moreover, Taniwaki told both ministry investigators and the Diet that he had never been entertained by other stakeholders than Tohokushinsha in any way that violated the law.

The facts that have been disclosed leave no doubt that he gave false answers to related questions, whether intentionally or not. He deserves to lose his job.

The ministry’s probe into allegations concerning NTT did not cover Makiko Yamada, who has resigned as Cabinet public relations secretary after being reported to have been treated to an expensive dinner by Tohokushinsha while working for the telecommunications ministry. Yamada was entertained by NTT as well, according to the magazine’s expose.

The fact that she has already stepped down offers no justification for the ministry not to include her in the officials it investigates. The ministry should seek her cooperation with the inquiry as soon as she regains her health.

The ministry says it will expand the scope of its in-house probe into the matter. It is also considering setting up a committee comprising independent members to evaluate whether the ministry’s policy decisions and actions were affected by dinner sessions paid by Tohokushinsha.

These steps should be taken swiftly. But the twists and turns related to Taniwaki’s involvement in the scandal have laid bare the limits of the ministry’s ongoing efforts to clarify the facts.

More resources should be allocated to the mission, and a third-party perspective is also needed for investigations into allegations unrelated to Tohokushinsha.

Another charge against the satellite broadcasting company was made during a Diet session last week. The firm allegedly violated the Broadcasting Law after it gained ministry approval to start ultra-high definition 4K resolution satellite broadcasting at the end of March 2017.

Despite the fact that foreign investors had come to hold more than a 20 percent stake in the company, surpassing the ceiling set by the law, the telecommunications ministry failed to immediately retract the approval as it should have done.

The ministry even allowed the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Tohokushinsha Media Service, to succeed the parent company as operator of the 4K resolution service.

The ministry’s claim that it was not aware of the violation of the law is hard to believe. If the ministry did not bother to check the foreign stake in the company, which listed the ratio of foreign share ownership at 21.23 percent in its March 2017 financial report, the ministry should be accused of serious negligence and be held severely responsible for it.

In the past several years, there have been a series of news stories about poor ethical and professional standards at the ministry. Its top bureaucrat was dismissed after leaking administrative penalty information to the senior executive vice president of Japan Post Holdings Co., which was under fire over improper sales of insurance products.

The ministry also lost the legal dispute with a local government over how to operate the “furusato nozei” hometown donation tax payment program as the Supreme Court ruled against the ministry.

The ministry is also making a questionable move concerning the management of Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK), which is under its jurisdiction. The ministry is backing the proposed reappointment of the chairman of NHK’s Board of Governors even though the public broadcaster is illegally refusing to disclose records of discussions at the board.

To top it all off, many senior officials were repeatedly wined and dined by companies regulated by the ministry while failing to take any action against a violation of the law by one of the firms.

Suga, who likes to boast about the political leadership he exercised at the ministry when he was telecommunications minister, should confront this miserable reality and reflect on his political responsibility for the situation.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 9