An employee of the Japanese Ministry of Finance during an evening with colleagues lost documents containing personal data of 187 people suspected of drug trafficking, according to local media.
The employee, who was not appointed, would have drunk nine glasses of beer during a five -hour evening with colleagues in Yokohama on February 6.
The local media said that he did not know that he had lost his bag before he left his train at home in another city, Sumida.
The Ministry of Finance said that it was “deeply sorry” for the incident which “considerably knew the public confidence”, according to the public broadcaster NHK.
The bag contained documents that counted the names and addresses of 187 suspicious drug addicts and recipients of marijuana seeds, the ministry said.
It also contained commercial laptops with the employee’s personal data.
The employee, who is assigned to the Customs and Prices Office, was not appointed in the NHK report.
The BBC contacted the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday, a public holiday in Japan.
Alcohol has long been considered a social lubricant for thousands of years in Japan, where difficult business and problems are discussed on bottles of beer and saké.
It is believed that drinking alcohol creates a more relaxed environment for such discussions.
