Another Japan Education Ministry Exec Held for Bribe-Taking

July 26, 2018

Tokyo- Public prosecutors arrested a Japanese education ministry executive on Thursday on suspicion of taking bribes from a medical consultant firm for giving the company favorable treatment.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation squad arrested Kazuaki Kawabata, 57, director-general for international affairs, for allegedly receiving bribes worth 1.4 million yen in the form of wining and dining from the firm when he was on loan to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.

The prosecutors also arrested Koji Taniguchi, 47, former executive of the consulting company, on charges of giving bribes to Kawabata.

The news came after Futoshi Sano, 59, then director-general of the ministry's Science and Technology Policy Bureau, was arrested on July 4 for allegedly taking a bribe from Tokyo Medical University for giving the school favorable treatment over a ministry support program for private universities.

Also on July 4, Taniguchi was arrested for helping Sano receive the bribe from Tokyo Medical University by arranging a meeting between Sano and the then chairman of the school's board of regents. Both Taniguchi and Sano were indicted on Tuesday.

The investigation squad is boosting efforts to fully expose the collusion between senior ministry officials and the consulting company.

The prosecutors did not say whether Kawabata and Taniguchi have admitted to the charges. According to informed sources, however, Taniguchi claims that wining and dining is not bribery.

The company is suspected of wining and dining Kawabata on a total of several occasions at a Tokyo restaurant and elsewhere between August 2015 and March 2017.

At the time, Kawabata was vice president of JAXA. He took the current post at the ministry in April last year.

"This is a very serious problem that can shake public trust in education and science administration," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a press conference.

"It's deeply regrettable that an incumbent education ministry official has been arrested," education and science minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.

He also said his ministry will continue making efforts to regain public trust in the ministry, damaged by a series of scandals. Jiji Press