Dentsu President and Chief Executive Officer Toshihiro Yamamoto, 59, is believed to have admitted the company's responsibility as a corporation for an alleged violation of the labor standards law, in voluntary questioning by the office.

The prosecutors have judged that it is possible to lay a criminal charge against Dentsu as a corporation based on seized records, sources familiar with the matter said.

But senior officials at the Tokyo-based ad agency are expected to be exempted from indictment due chiefly to the lack of their recognition of illegality.

As for executives of three regional branches on whom papers were turned over to prosecutors in April, the district public prosecutors offices in respective regions are expected to stop short of indicting them. The three branches are the Osaka and Kyoto office, both in western Japan, and the Nagoya office in the central region. (Jiji Press)