The large-scale corruption scandal surrounding the sponsorship of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics has claimed its first victim. Hironori Aoki, former president of Aoki Holdings, a partner of the Games, was given a 30-month suspended prison sentence on Friday. He was found guilty of paying bribes to ensure his company, a Japanese chain of business suit stores, became an official sponsor of the Olympics.
The prosecution had requested 30 months in prison against him, according to local media. Two of his former collaborators at Aoki Holdings also received suspended prison sentences, but shorter (six months and one year), according to the Japanese news agency Jiji. The three men were arrested last August along with Haruyuki Takahashi, a former member of the Tokyo Games organizing committee. The latter is suspected of having received in 2017 the equivalent of more than 320,000 euros in bribes from Aoki Holdings, which became the following year an official partner of the Olympic Games. His trial has not yet started.
A former leader of the organization arrested
Many other companies in the country are splashed by this scandal. The former president of the large Japanese publishing company Kadokawa, as well as that of the advertising agency ADK, were also arrested at the start of the year. Dentsu, Japan’s largest advertising agency, is also in the crosshairs of investigators, who suspect it along with other companies of having rigged calls for tenders for preparation contracts related to the Games. Finally, a former official of the organization of the Olympic Games, Yasuo Mori, was arrested in February.
Suspicions of corruption have also long floated over the conditions for awarding the 2020 Olympics to the Japanese capital by the International Olympic Committee in 2013. In March 2019, the president of the Japanese Olympic Committee Tsunekazu Takeda resigned a few months after being dismissed. under examination by the French justice system, which is investigating this case.