Dark legacy for the Tokyo Games. A year and a handful of days after the end of the Olympic event, the news reopens the Tokyo 2020 case. But, this time, it moves to the legal section.
Haruyuki Takahashi (photo above), often presented as one of the most influential leaders of the Japanese Olympic movement, was arrested Wednesday August 17 in Tokyo. With him, three other men suffered the same fate, including the former founder and president of a clothing brand that became an official partner of the Tokyo Games organizing committee.
The four men are suspected of corruption.
The affair began almost four weeks ago. On July 21, two days before the symbolic date of D + 1 after the opening of the Tokyo Games, the Japanese media revealed the existence of an investigation into alleged bribes relating to the last Olympic event and Paralympic Games in the Japanese capital.
At the heart of the case, Haruyuki Takahashi, 78 years old, former boss of the Dentsu group, member of the board of directors of Tokyo 2020. He is suspected of having received in 2017 the equivalent of nearly $380.000 (at current prices), in several dozen payments spread over more than five years, from the company Aoki Holdings, a Japanese chain of business suit stores.
The money was paid by Aoki to the account of a consulting agency owned by Haruyuki Takahashi. Anything but anecdotal clarification: Aoki Holdings, already involved in Tokyo's candidacy for the Summer Games in 2020 (the brand had dressed the delegation during the IOC session in Buenos Aires in September 2013), became a partner of the steering Committee.
Considered by his position as a member of the Tokyo board of directors as an agent of the state, Haruyuki Takahashi was not to receive a single penny from an official partner of the Games. According to the investigation documents, his consulting firm would have been paid monthly starting in the fall of 2017. The payments ranged from $3.700 to $7.400 per month.
Haruyuki Takahashi did not deny the facts. But he assured that the money received was in no way linked to the Tokyo Games, nor to his presence on the board of directors.
The investigation continued. At the beginning of August, prosecutors in charge of the case ordered searches at the home of Haruyuki Takahashi, but also that of the former president of Aoki Holdings, Hironori Aoki, 83, who had retired since June , and in the offices of the former Games organizing committee.
The last episode, Wednesday August 17, goes up another notch on the scale of suspicion. Haruyuki Takahashi, Hironori Aoki and two other officials at the clothing company – Takahisa Aoki, 76, younger brother of the founder and former vice president of the brand, and Katsuhisa Ueda, 40, a company executive – were arrested .
Haruyuki Takahashi is suspected of having received 51 million yen in bribes ($380.000), via more than 50 payments, from Hironori Aoki and others between October 2017 and March 2022. Other Japanese arrested are suspected of having sought to obtain favorable arrangements for sponsorship contracts for the Tokyo Games.
According to the public channel NHK, citing sources close to the investigation, Aoki Holdings reportedly requested a “ preferential treatment » to Haruyuki Takahashi several months before signing the consulting contract. The same sources specify that the clothing company would have had frequent contact with the former director of Dentsu until June last year. Aoki Holdings reportedly asked Haruyuki Takahashi to speed up the selection by the Tokyo Games organizing committee of official licensed products manufactured and sold by the company.
As is often the case in Japan, the announcement of the four arrests was accompanied by a large number of press releases. Aoki Holdings apologized for the “ gigantic wrong » caused by these arrests. The company assured “ take the matter seriously » and want “ cooperate fully with investigations carried out by the authorities"
Created in 1958, now based in Yokohama, Aoki Holdings currently has nearly 600 stores in Japan. It has been listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange since 1991.
Since its partnership with Tokyo 2020, it has sold more than 30.000 suits and jackets from its Olympic collection. The brand also dressed the Japanese delegation for the opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Games.
