Kadokawa Chairman Indicted On Tokyo Games - Related Bribery Charge
The chairman of major Japanese publisher Kadokawa was indicted on Tuesday for bribing a former executive of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics organizing committee.
After the indictment, Kadokawa Tsuguhiko released a statement announcing his intention to resign as chairman. He also denied his involvement in the bribery case, and said he hopes to make his innocence clear in the trial.
Tokyo prosecutors allege that Kadokawa gave a total of 69 million yen, or about 480,000 dollars, from September 2019 through January last year to Takahashi Haruyuki, a former board member of the Tokyo Games organizing committee.
The prosecutors say Kadokawa colluded with his subordinates to bribe Takahashi in exchange for having the publisher chosen as a Games sponsor.
They suspect the chairman asked Takahashi to speed up the finalization process for the sponsorship deal. The prosecutors also say he requested that the sponsorship fee be capped at around 2.6 million dollars.