THE JAPAN TIMES



 

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday arrested Kadokawa Chairman Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, 79, on suspicion of offering bribes totaling around ¥69 million to a former executive of the Tokyo Games organizing committee.

Prosecutors suspect Kadokawa made the bribes to Haruyuki Takahashi, 78, a former Dentsu executive and a prominent figure in the sports business world. Takahashi is at the center of a growing bribery scandal engulfing the Tokyo Games, which were held last summer after a one-year postponement.

Kadokawa is suspected of transferring the funds on nine occasions from the firm’s bank account to a consulting firm headed by Kazumasa Fukami, 73, also a former Dentsu employee, between September 2019 and January 2021 as a reward for giving the publisher an advantage to be selected as a sponsor of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

Kadokawa became a sponsor in April 2019, enabling it to publish the Summer Games’ official guidebooks and records.

This is the second case in which a top official of an Olympics sponsor firm was arrested in connection to the bribery scandal, after Takahashi as well as Hironori Aoki, the founder of retailer Aoki Holdings, were arrested in August.

Takahashi, Aoki and two others have been indicted in connection with a separate allegation of bribery involving payments totaling around ¥51 million.

Last week, the Tokyo prosecutors rearrested Takahashi and arrested Fukami, as well as former Kadokawa executive Toshiyuki Yoshihara, 64, and Kadokawa employee Kyoji Maniwa, 63, over suspected bribery.

Takahashi and Fukami are suspected of getting Kadokawa to transfer funds to Fukami’s consulting firm after allegedly being asked by Yoshihara and Maniwa to help the publisher be selected as a sponsor of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

Because the statute of limitations for prosecuting a bribery suspect is three years, the amount of funds in question for the transfers has been set at ¥69 million.

Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who led the Tokyo Games organizing committee until he had to quit over sexist remarks, has been questioned by prosecutors on a voluntary basis over the widening corruption scandal, sources close to the matter said last week.

Fukami’s consulting firm was also allegedly used to receive money from Osaka-based Daiko Advertising, whose offices were searched last week.

Takahashi and Fukami are believed to have pushed for the organizing committee to use Daiko Advertising as an agent when selecting sponsors, and investigators suspect more than ¥10 million was paid by Daiko as bribes to Takahashi.