In the corruption scandal surrounding the Tokyo Olympics, there are the first verdicts. The district court in Tokyo on Friday sentenced the former head of the clothing group Aoki to two and a half years of imprisonment for paying bribes. The court in Japan’s capital found Hironori Aoki, 84, guilty of bribing former Olympic Organizing Committee board member Haruyuki Takahashi.
In addition to Hironori Aoki, the court also sentenced his brother and former deputy Takahisa Aoki (77) and former CEO Katsuhisa Ueda (41) to suspended prison terms.
“Society’s trust damaged”
The verdict was the first in a series of bribery cases involving Takahashi. The 79-year-old is a former employee of the largest Japanese advertising agency Dentsu, which was the exclusive marketing agency for the Summer Games in Tokyo at the time.
Takahashi is accused of accepting bribes from Aoki and others to help companies select Olympic sponsors or marketing agents.
The crimes committed “damaged society’s confidence in the fair administration of the Tokyo Games,” said presiding judge Kenji Yasunaga at the verdict. The games, which were postponed by a year due to the corona pandemic, took place in 2021.
The corruption scandal also overshadowed the northern Japanese city of Sapporo’s bid for the 2030 Winter Games. According to media reports, the national organizing committee recently announced talks with the city government, including the option of postponing the bid to the games four years later.
