The soap opera of the alleged corruption affair at the Tokyo 2020 Games has just been enriched with a new episode. Good news for fans of sensationalism: it features a major player in the last summer Olympic and Paralympic event. A heavyweight, a real one. Mister President.
According to a source close to the investigation, cited by the Japanese daily Sankei and the agency Kyodo News, the former president of the Tokyo Games organizing committee, and former Japanese Prime Minister, Yoshiro Mori (photo above), would be directly involved in the corruption affair involving a partner of the event, the brand of men's clothing Aoki, and a former Tokyo 2020 board member, Haruyuki Takahashi.
The two media report that the former founder and president of Aoki Holdings, Hironori Aoki, allegedly told the prosecutors in charge of the investigation that he had given Yoshiro Mori the sum of 2 million yen (14.300 euros at current prices). The money would have been paid in cash, in two installments, at a time when the former Japanese Prime Minister was still the president of the Tokyo Games organizing committee.
Hironori Aoki would have met Yoshiro Mori through the other major player in the affair, Haruyuki Takahashi, former boss of the Dentsu group, the advertising and public relations agency for Tokyo 2020. The meeting would have taken place before the official announcement of the partnership between Aoki and the organizing committee.
Kyodo News suggests that the money would have been used to finance the treatment of Yoshiro Mori, now 85 years old, who was battling cancer.
The investigation is currently looking into the relationship between the Aoki company and the Games organizing committee. She has already revealed that the Japanese manufacturer of men's suits and clothing had negotiated its entry into the Tokyo 2020 marketing program at a price well below the established grid. She now seeks to discover what kind of favors Aoki would have obtained in exchange for his generosity, with regard to Haruyuki Takahashi and Yoshiro Mori.
The former Japanese Prime Minister, forced to resign in February 2021 for having made sexist comments during a meeting of the Japanese Olympic Committee, declared through a representative that he had never discussed with Haruyuki Takahashi and Hironori Aoki the choice of the brand as partner of the Games.
But it now seems very clear that Haruyuki Takahashi took advantage of his position on the board of directors, and his past at the head of Dentsu, to influence the choices of the marketing division of the organizing committee. According to a source close to the matter, it welcomed a large number of Dentsu employees, seconded to the organizing committee.
As a reminder, Haruyuki Takahashi, 78, is suspected of having received bribes totaling around 51 million yen (365.000 euros) from the Aoki company, between 2017 and 2021. He was arrested last month. Hironori Aoki, 83, and two other company executives were also arrested.
