Former Tokyo Olympics official arrested on corruption charges

A former executive of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee, Hauryuki Takahashi, has been arrested on suspicion of receiving bribes from a clothing firm, announced Wednesday the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which has also detained three other people.

Takahashi allegedly took 51 million yen (about 370,000 euros) from Aoki Holdings’ company, a suit company with which the organizers signed a sponsorship contract. According to investigators, he received bribes on more than 50 occasions between October 2017 and March 2022.

Those arrested also include a former head of the textile company, Hironori Aoki, who along with others interceded with Takahashi so that the firm would receive preferential treatment in the process of choosing sponsors on the occasion of the sporting event.

The former member of the organizing committee, who had also been part of the advertising company Dentsu, has admitted that he received money, although he has denied the corrupt practices attributed to him by the prosecution, according to sources quoted by the Kiodo news agency. The authorities had already searched the home of the now arrested man at the end of July.