KADOKAWA chairman arrested on bribery charges in olympics corruption case

In a corruption case involving the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office arrested Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, 79 years old, chairman of publishing giant KADOKAWA, which was a sponsor of the Games, on 14 September afternoon on bribery charges. The case escalated to the arrest of KADOKAWA's top management.

On 6 September, the Special Investigation Department arrested Haruyuki Takahashi (78 years old), former Director of the Organizing Committee for the Games on suspicion of bribery and former KADOKAWA Executive Director Toshiyuki Yoshihara (64 years old) and General Manager of the Olympics Office Kyoji Umaniwa (63 years old) on bribery charges. On the same day, the Special Investigation Department also searched the home of the KADOKAWA chairman.

Former Executive Director Yoshihara and former General Manager Umaniwa asked Kazumasa Fukami (73 years old) - an acquaintance of former Director Takahashi and former representative of the consulting firm Commons 2 to be their sponsor. Additionally, the two are also suspected of having bribed Commons 2 a total of JPY 76 million bribes, divided into 10 times between July 2019 and January 2021.