Former central government bureaucrats are serving as executives at 45.4 percent of public-interest entities in Japan, according to a government report released Sept. 9.

As of October, 7,584 former bureaucrats were holding executive posts at 3,054 public-interest entities over which their ministries and agencies have jurisdiction, according to the fiscal 2008 White Paper on public-interest entities, compiled by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry.

Compared with the previous year, the number of retired bureaucrats who took such posts fell by 470, but the number of entities that accepted former bureaucrats as executives rose by five, the paper says. The practice of retired bureaucrats landing such top posts is known as amakudari (descent from heaven), and it has been blamed for a host of corruption scandals in recent years.