New raids on corruption at Tokyo Olympics

New raids on corruption at Tokyo Olympics;
Japanese police made new raids against the backdrop of receiving questionable funds for a senior official on the organizing committee for the Olympic Games held in Tokyo last summer from a Japanese company that later became the official sponsor of the global event, Japanese media reported.

According to reports, the home of the former head of the Oakie Holdings series of clothing stores, Hironori Oki (83), and former offices of the Olympic organizing committee were raided at the government headquarters in the Japanese capital.

Police on Tuesday raided the home of Haruyuki Takahashi (78), a former senior official on the Olympic organizing committee dissolved last month.

Oki Holdings

Takahashi, a former executive of Japanese advertising giant Dentsu, was suspected in 2017 of receiving more than € 320 thousand from Oki Holdings after signing a contract between his consulting firm and the group, which is 2018 became an official partner for the Tokyo Olympics last summer after being postponed a year after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Takahashi was not expected to accept any funds or gifts in connection with his role as a board member of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics since 2014. Despite these allegations, Takahashi denied any conflict of interest in the deal with Oki Holdings in the Japanese press last week.

In response to an AFP question, the Tokyo Public Prosecutor’s Office declined to comment on this investigation.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said Wednesday that the case was “deplorable” and that she intended to follow its development “closely,” assuring reporters that she had asked former members of the Olympic organizing committee “to cooperate fully with the investigation.”

Suspicions of corruption have begun to surface on the conditions of Tokyo’s 2020 Olympics. In March 2019, Japanese Olympic Committee president Tsunekazu Takeda resigned a few months after being convicted by French justice of making payments to Black Tydings, based in Singapore, before and after the archipelago was selected to host the Games by the International Olympic Committee.