Tongues are being loosened and confessions are multiplying in Japan in the corruption scandal linked to the Tokyo 2020 Games. The latest actor is not the least imposing in the cast. He was not the most anticipated in the credits of the soap opera.
Hiroshi Igarashi, the president and CEO of Dentsu, a global advertising and public relations giant, admitted to Tokyo prosecutors the involvement of his group in rigging calls for tenders for test events and certain events from the Tokyo 2020 Games.
The information is revealed by Kyodo News. The Japanese agency cites sources “ close to the file ».
Questioned at the end of last week by investigators, as part of a voluntary hearing, Hiroshi Igarashi allegedly admitted that his group actively and knowingly participated in the awarding of service contracts for the organization of several events, before and during the event, in disregard of competition rules.
Prosecutors have already arrested a former executive of the Dentsu group, Koji Hemmi, and the former head of operations of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, Yasuo Mori. Two senior executives of companies who benefited from the fraud were also arrested.
Koji Hemmi and Yasuo Mori reportedly admitted the charges against them. The investigation also targets five Japanese companies, accused of having collaborated with Dentsu and Tokyo 2020 to win contracts without going through proper calls for tenders. The five companies in question are two advertising agencies, Hakuhodo and Tokyu Agency, and three event production agencies, Cerespo, Fuji Creative and Same Two. According to sources cited by Kyodo News, their leaders would also have more or less recognized the facts. Only the boss of the Cerespo company would continue to deny any involvement.
The case concerns 26 rigged calls for tenders, the majority of which were dedicated to the organization of test events for the Olympic Games. Total amount of fraud: just under $4 million.
Tokyo prosecutors now plan to charge Dentsu and the five other companies with violating the anti-monopoly law. Their indictment could take place as early as this week. It would follow an official complaint filed by the Japan Trade Commission.
Barring an improbable scenario, Hiroshi Igarashi is not likely to go to prison. But the confessions of Dentsu number 1 further add to an already very thick case. Above all, they threaten the short-term future of the Japanese group in international sport.
Often not very visible, but very present and terribly influential, Dentsu carries colossal weight in the Olympic movement. Historically, its entry onto the scene dates back to the 1984 Los Angeles Games. A timid entry, the Japanese group contented itself with lending a hand to the marketing department of the organizing committee.
Since then, Dentsu has expanded its reach, multiplying contracts and collaborations at all levels of the pyramid. A long-time marketing partner of the IOC, the Japanese group obtained exclusive media rights for the PyeongChang 2015 Winter Games and Tokyo 2018 Summer Games in 2020 countries in the Asian region in 22. The agreement was also extended to the 2022 Winter and 2024 Summer Games, not yet awarded by the IOC at the time of signing the contract.
In 2014, Dentsu was declared the exclusive marketing agency for the Tokyo 2020 Games. The same year, the Japanese group extended its commercial contract with the International Athletics Federation (World Athletics, then named IAAF) until 2029. The following year, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) appointed it as the exclusive marketing agency in Japan. Signed for a period of five years, the agreement granted Dentsu the mission of selling the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and their sporting disciplines to Japanese companies.
Will the Japanese group and its president recover from such a scandal? Likely. But the confessions of Hiroshi Igarashi and their impact on Japanese public opinion deal a new blow to the candidacy – paused since the end of last year – of Sapporo for the 2030 Winter Games.
