2 Top Execs of Japanese University Resign over Bribery Scandal

July 8, 2018

Tokyo- Tokyo Medical University said Friday that its two top executives have offered to quit over a bribery scandal involving a Japanese education ministry program for supporting private universities in the nation.

The Tokyo university accepted letters of resignation submitted by Masahiko Usui, 77, chairman of its board of regents, and Mamoru Suzuki, 69, president of the private school, officials said at a press conference. The letters are dated Thursday, according to the officials.

It is true that the two top leaders are suspected of offering a bribe, Executive Regent Tetsuo Yukioka said, apologizing for the trouble caused by the scandal.

Usui and Suzuki did not appear at the press conference as they are being investigated by public prosecutors without arrest.

On Wednesday, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation squad arrested education ministry official Futoshi Sano, 58, for allegedly taking a bribe from the university in the form of having the school fraudulently enroll his son in return for favors for the institute to be selected for the support program.

Yukioka stopped short of specifying if such misconduct actually took place, noting that the prosecutors' investigation is under way. Sano's son is currently absent from the school, according to Yukioka.

Lawyers of the university are investigating the matter. The school is also considering setting up a third-party committee to look into the scandal.

Following the arrest, Sano was removed from the post of director-general of the ministry's Science and Technology Policy Bureau and attached to the education ministry's secretariat. Jiji Press