EXCLUSIVE: About 10 Education Ministry Execs Questioned over Bribery Case

August 1, 2018

Tokyo- Around 10 senior officials of Japan's education ministry have been questioned by public prosecutors on a voluntary basis over a bribery case involving a ministry executive, Jiji Press learned Tuesday.

The questioned officials included vice education minister Kazuo Todani, whose office was investigated by the special squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, sources familiar with the matter said.

Some of these officials are believed to be acquainted with Koji Taniguchi, 47, a former executive at a medical consulting firm, who allegedly bribed the arrested official, Kazuaki Kawabata, according to the sources.

Investigators from the special squad apparently asked them whether they were wined and dined by Taniguchi, the sources said.

Last Thursday, the special team arrested Kawabata, 57, then director-general for international affairs at the ministry, on suspicion of accepting bribes worth 1.4 million yen in the form of wining and dining in return for favors for Taniguchi when Kawabata was working on loan as vice president of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA. Kawabata was removed from the post of director-general and attached to the education minister's secretariat the same day.

Taniguchi was also arrested last Thursday on suspicion of bribing Kawabata.

Following the arrest of Kawabata, the prosecutors searched his office, as well as the office of Todani, according to the sources.

Kawabata served as chief of the ministry's Management and Coordination Division between July 2011 and December 2012, before he worked as JAXA vice president. He is believed to have come to know Taniguchi during the period.

Futoshi Sano, 59, former director-general of the ministry's Science and Technology Policy Bureau, who has been indicted for alleged bribe-taking, was the successor of Kawabata as Management and Coordination Division chief. Kawabata is thought to have introduced Taniguchi to Sano during the procedures of handing over the division chief post to the successor.

Taniguchi was arrested on July 4 on suspicion of helping Sano receive the bribe from Tokyo Medical University by arranging a meeting last year between Sano and the school's then head. Taniguchi was indicted later over the case.

Kawabata is also suspected of bringing together other education ministry officials, including a former executive of the Japan Sports Agency, and Taniguchi, the sources said.

The prosecutors are investigating relations between the officials and Taniguchi, according to the sources. Jiji Press