Bad timing. Two days before celebrating the very symbolic date of one year exactly after the opening of the Tokyo 2020 Games, Saturday July 23, a case of alleged corruption has just broken out in Japan. It concerns a member of the executive council of the former organizing committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
According to the agency Kyodo News, citing sources “ close to the file", the courts are reportedly investigating the payment of the sum of 45 million yen – about $326.000 at current prices – by a partner of Tokyo 2020 to a consultancy firm owned by Haruyuki Takahashi (photo above), a member of the council executive of the organizing committee.
The sponsor in question, Aoki Holdings Inc., became an official supporter of the Tokyo 2018 Games in October 2020, the third tier of the national marketing program. Very established in Japan, the company founded at the end of the 50s manufactures men's suits.
As a partner of the Games, it marketed a line of clothing bearing the Summer Games emblem. She has reportedly sold more than 30.000 Tokyo 2020-stamped costumes and jackets since the start of 2019. Great deal, then. Aoki dressed the Tokyo 2020 delegation to the IOC session in September 2013 in Buenos Aires, during which the Japanese capital was named host of the 2020 Summer Games.
Only problem: the Japanese police allegedly discovered the existence of a contract between Aoki and the consulting firm headed by Haruyuki Takahashi. His signature dates back to September 2017, before the brand entered the marketing program for the Tokyo Games. It provided for the payment of a benefit worth one million yen per month, approximately 7.000 euros at current prices.
A conflict of interest? Japanese prosecutors believe so. As part of their investigation, they interviewed the former chairman and founder of Aoki Holdings, Hironori Aoki, who retired last month. Asked by the Japanese media, the company's management refused to comment on the matter.
Haruyuki Takahashi, for his part, denies any presumption of corruption. The Japanese leader, now 78 years old, does not dispute the existence of a contract between Aoki and his consulting firm. But he swears to God that it was not linked to the Tokyo 2020 Games, but concerned a commercial strategy of the clothing brand on a national level.
According to Kyodo News, the very existence of a commercial contract between a Games partner and a member of the Tokyo 2020 executive board would constitute an act of corruption. The Olympic law adopted in Japan after Tokyo was awarded the Games in 2020 specifies that members of the executive council and officials of the organizing committee are considered state civil servants. As such, they are prohibited from receiving gifts, compensation or remuneration from companies linked to the Games.
Former general manager of the giant Dentsu, the official advertising agency of Tokyo 2020, Haruyuki Takahashi has often been presented as one of the most influential members of the executive board of the organizing committee. He was one of the first to join it, in June 2014, just a few months after its creation.
His name has already been cited by the Japanese media in certain less than transparent transactions concerning the Tokyo Games and the bid campaign. In September 2020, Kyodo News revealed that the candidacy committee would have made a dozen transfers, for a total amount of 900 million yen (7,3 million euros), to a company led by Haruyuki Takahashi.
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