In the context of a major corruption scandal, former officials of a corporate sponsor of the 2020 Olympics have been convicted.
Two former officials of a corporate sponsor of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games were given suspended prison sentences by the Japanese courts on Thursday, as part of a vast corruption scandal surrounding the event.
The affair began to break out last summer in Japan, a year after the Games which were finally held in 2021 and almost behind closed doors due to the pandemic, and cast a shadow over the candidacy of Sapporo (north ) for the 2030 Winter Olympics.
Shigeharu Hisamatsu, 64, a former head of the Japanese advertising agency ADK, was given an 18-month suspended prison sentence, a spokesman for a Tokyo court confirmed to AFP on Thursday. His former collaborator Toshiaki Tada, 61, was given a one-year suspended prison sentence. During their first hearing in March, the two men had not disputed the acts of corruption of a member of the organizing committee of the Games which they were accused of.
They were arrested in October along with former ADK chairman Shinichi Ueno. According to local media, Mr. Ueno admitted in court in February to having paid the equivalent of around 100,000 euros to Haruyuki Takahashi, a former member of the Tokyo Games organizing committee who claims his innocence, according to the press. Last month, the first conviction in this scandal was pronounced against the former president of the Japanese chain of business suits Aoki Holdings, also an Olympic sponsor.
Hironori Aoki, 84, had received a 30-month suspended prison sentence. Several other companies in the country have been splashed by the affair, which has spilled over into Sapporo’s bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics. Japanese Olympic Committee President Yasuhiro Yamashita said last month that it would be “difficult to ‘move forward’ for Sapporo ‘without getting the people’s understanding’.
