The Construction Ministry estimates that $5.3 billion will be needed over the next five years just to clean up the country's water supply.

The Construction Ministry, on the other hand, has apparently been pushing a plan to ease the terms of housing loans that will interfere with that effort.

He had the current political wind behind him: Japan's Construction Ministry is up to its I-beams in corruption charges.

"This would mean a certain rehabilitation for me," said Mr. Yeltsin, now a high official in the Construction Ministry.

"I know there is criticism of what we have done so far," said Yasukuki Koga, an official in the Construction Ministry.

The Construction Ministry is also considering raising safety standards for construction in the future.

In Kumamoto prefecture this month, 2,000 local farmers won a seven-year fight against Construction Ministry plans to build a huge dam there.

He said the cancellations came after a memo was issued by the Japanese Construction Ministry to local governments.

It is hardly the first time that the Construction Ministry has resorted to artificial devices to preserve a precious piece of Japan.

But he never headed the Construction Ministry.