Arrested Official Seen Involved in Astronaut Dispatch to University

July 27, 2018

Tokyo- An education and science ministry official who was arrested on Thursday for alleged bribe-taking is seen to have been involved in the dispatch of an astronaut to deliver a lecture at Tokyo Medical University in 2016 while the suspect was working on loan at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, it was learned Friday.

The special squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office suspects that the astronaut dispatch might have been part of the favorable treatment that the ministry official, Kazuaki Kawabata, 57, allegedly provided to the bribe-giving side, informed sources said.

On Thursday, the special investigation team arrested Kawabata, director-general for international affairs at the ministry, on suspicion of receiving bribes worth about 1.4 million yen in the form of wining and dining between August 2015 and March 2017, during his work at JAXA, a Japanese government affiliate, from a then executive of a medical consulting company.

Kawabata was removed from the post and attached to the education minister's secretariat the same day.

The prosecutors arrested the former medical consultancy executive, Koji Taniguchi, 47, also on Thursday for allegedly bribing Kawabata.

On July 4, Taniguchi was arrested for helping another education ministry official, Futoshi Sano, 59, receive a bribe from Tokyo Medical University by arranging a meeting last year between Sano and the school's then head.

In November 2016, a JAXA astronaut was sent to Tokyo Medical University and gave a lecture as an event to mark the 100th anniversary of the school's establishment.

Kawabata served as JAXA vice president on loan from the education and science ministry between April 2015 and March 2017.

The special team of the prosecutors office is investigating, among other things, the process of how the university was selected as the venue for the astronaut's lecture, the sources said.

JAXA receives requests for astronaut dispatches on its website and through other channels. It declines such requests in many cases, however, because the number of astronauts is limited, according to JAXA officials.

Entities that accept JAXA astronauts as lecturers need to cover their travel costs, but do not have to pay rewards to them.

It has also been learned that Kawabata was wined and dined by Taniguchi at luxury restaurants in Tokyo and other places dozens of times while Kawabata was serving in the senior JAXA post.

But Taniguchi has denied bribing Kawabata, telling investigators, "I've paid restaurant bills for Kawabata, but I didn't expect any returns from him," according to sources familiar with the probe.

Taniguchi served as an executive of the medical consultancy between July 2015 and February this year. The company was set up in February 2010 to provide support to medical and welfare institutions. Jiji Press