Former Mayor in Central Japan Arrested for Bribery

June 18, 2018

Tokyo- Police arrested Hiromi Tsukuda, former mayor of Ito in the central Japan prefecture of Shizuoka, Saturday on suspicion of bribery over the city's land purchase.

The police also arrested Keijiro Mori, president of Towa Kaihatsu Co., a local real estate company, and Hiroshi Inaba, a corporate employee, for their alleged roles in the bribery case.

Tsukuda, 71, is suspected of receiving a total of about 10 million yen in bribe from Mori, 47, via Inaba, 50, on several occasions between late August and early September in 2015 while in office in exchange for the city government's acquisition of a former hotel site from Towa Kaihatsu.

In an interview made before the arrest, Tsukuda said he only got back the money he had lent, denying any wrongdoing.

Towa Kaihatsu acquired the 4,000-square-meter former hotel site for about 50 million yen in October 2014. The city government bought the site for some 200 million yen from the company in July 2015 to build a learning facility.

But such a facility has not been built on the site, which is currently used as a parking lot.

Tsukuda served as Ito mayor for three terms, starting in 2005, before retiring in May last year. After the retirement, he was special adviser to the city until March this year.

Mori became president of Towa Kaihatsu in 1999. Jiji Press