Ex-University Head Dined with Arrested Bureaucrat in May 2017

July 10, 2018

Tokyo- Former Tokyo Medical University head Masahiko Usui and a senior Japanese education ministry official who was arrested last week for alleged bribe-taking dined together in May last year, it was learned Tuesday.

The meeting between Usui, 77, former chairman of the school's board of regents, and the ministry official, Futoshi Sano, 58, was arranged by a former executive of a medical consulting company, informed sources said.

At the meeting, Usui is believed to have asked Sano to help the university be chosen for the ministry's program designed to support unique research of private universities, the sources said.

Tokyo public prosecutors arrested Sano on Wednesday for allegedly receiving a bribe from the Tokyo Medical University side. Specifically, he is suspected to have let his son pass the university's entrance examination in February this year by having the school bump up his score fraudulently, in exchange for giving favorable treatment for the school's selection for the support program.

It is suspected that Sano was asked for the favor from the university in May 2017, when he was director-general at the education minister's secretariat.

Immediately after the arrest, Sano was removed from the post of director-general of the ministry's Science and Technology Policy Bureau and attached to the minister's secretariat. Usui resigned from the post of university chairman following Sano's arrest.

According to the sources, the Usui-Sano meeting was joined by the former consulting company official, Koji Taniguchi, 47, who was also arrested Wednesday for his alleged supporting role in the suspected bribery case.

Usui, who is being investigated by the prosecutors without arrest, has admitted that he maneuvered to offer a bribe to Sano, the sources said.

While admitting that the meeting took place, Taniguchi denied the allegations against him, according to the sources. Jiji Press