Prosecutors searched the welfare ministry June 15, a day after a senior ministry official was arrested for alleged involvement in abusing a postage discount system for the disabled.

Atsuko Muraki, director general of the Equal Employment, Children and Families Bureau of the welfare ministry, speaks June 12 at the Diet. KYODO PHOTO

The special investigation squad of the Osaka District Public Prosecutor's Office entered the ministry to search the office of Atsuko Muraki, 53, director general of the Equal Employment, Children and Families Bureau. Her house in Wako, Saitama Prefecture, was searched earlier the same day.

Muraki was arrested on suspicion of issuing a fabricated certificate to recognize an organization as a group for the disabled, thus enabling it to use the postage discount system.

The group, formerly called Rin-no-kai and now known as Hakusan-kai, does not qualify as an organization for the disabled. It helped several companies send direct mail using the discount system to avoid full postage fees.

It is the second time prosecutors have searched the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry for evidence of ministry officials' involvement in the case. A ministry section chief was arrested in May.

According to investigative sources, the prosecutors are investigating whether there was pressure from a politician to recognize Hakusan-kai as an organization for the disabled.

Muraki's former boss, whose name is being withheld, has said that a Diet member asked around February 2004 for the issuance of a certificate to designate the group as an organization for disabled people, the sources said.