Photo/Illutration The head office of Airport Facilities Co. is located in the building at the lower left. (Hiroyuki Yamamoto)

A former transport ministry official used his clout with Airport Facilities Co., a Tokyo-based company with close ties to bureaucrats, to steamroll all opposition and be named its executive vice president, a financially lucrative post-retirement position, The Asahi Shimbun has learned.

The flaunting of authority on such a scale almost defies belief.

It had earlier been disclosed that Masaru Honda, who once held the senior rank of administrative vice minister, visited the Tokyo offices of Airport Facilities last December to meet with the company’s president and chairman. 

On that occasion, Honda, 69, asked them to name Katsuhiro Yamaguchi as the next president when personnel decisions are made in June. The request reeks of “amakudari,” a practice that allows senior Japanese government officials to land cushy post-retirement employment in the private sector.

However, Yamaguchi, 63, had already given the company executives the hard sell the previous year, suggesting it was the ministry’s intention that he would be offered the position, according to sources.

On May 31, 2021, eight of the company’s top executives held a meeting to discuss the executive vacancy that was about to arise with the pending retirement of the president.

Yamaguchi was a company board member.

The Asahi Shimbun has obtained a record of the meeting as well as verbal statements from some of those who attended.

Yamaguchi formerly headed the ministry’s East Japan Civil Aviation Bureau, which exercises jurisdiction over airports in the capital region, including Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

During the meeting, Yamaguchi made a strong case for being named to the vice presient position, which would give him authority to represent the company, according to the sources.

“This is what people behind me are thinking,” Yamaguchi said as he mentioned his long association with the ministry in the same breath.

Yamaguchi then took a step back and said, “This is not my idea,” and “I’ll have no choice but to ask the appropriate people” about the matter.

Yamaguchi also noted that Airport Facilities had rented public land close to Haneda Airport. Possible uses are thought to include, with ministry approval, building, managing, leasing or renting cargo terminals, airport hangars, offices and in-flight meal facilities as well as engine maintenance areas and flight attendant training facilities.

“From the aviation bureau’s standpoint, it is a proof of our mutual cooperation,” Yamaguchi said at the meeting as he reeled off his accomplishments that he felt warranted his appointment as vice president.

The transport ministry has the authority to permit a company to use public land and operate a cargo facilities rental business.

Yamaguchi, the sources said, also cited the relationship between the aviation bureau and two key airlines: Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways Co.

The two national airline companies are the main shareholders of the company.

Yamaguchi said the ministry and the airline companies “have strong ties in variety of fields, such as arrival and departure slots at Haneda.”

The aviation bureau has authority to allocate takeoff and landing slots at the airport, which has a decisive influence on the operations of JAL and ANA.

Some of those present at the meeting were astonished at the brazen way Yamaguchi promoted himself as the obvious candidate to become vice president.

“Doesn’t this amount to intervention in our company’s authority when it comes to personnel issues?” asked one individual, while another said, “You sounded like the company is run by the ministry.”

But Yamaguchi said, “This is inevitable.”

One person asked, “Do you mean that the bureaucrats won’t accept (any other decision)?”

Yamaguchi replied, “Exactly.”

A board member who attended the meeting told The Asahi Shimbun that Yamaguchi “simply pulled rank in asking for the post.”

Yamaguchi was appointed as the company’s executive vice president in June 2021.

(This article was written by Sotaro Hata, Shuhei Shibata and Yoshitaka Ito, a senior staff writer.)

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