Heads continue to roll in Japan in the corruption scandal linked to the Tokyo 2020 Games. For the first time since the start of the affair, the accused is a former executive of the organizing committee. Mori Yasuo, who held the strategic position of deputy executive director of operations, admitted on Wednesday July 5 before Tokyo prosecutors to having rigged calls for tenders for the organization of certain test events before the Games and several Olympic events. The contracts thus awarded would have reached the total sum of 43,7 billion yen, or approximately 300 million dollars. Mori Yasuo did not deny the facts. He apologized, but nevertheless insisted on explaining the reason for this violation of Japanese law on the award of contracts. According to him, the manipulation of calls for tenders had been made necessary by a delay in the preparation of the Games. It was decided so as not to endanger the proper conduct of the tests. Placed in an emergency situation, he would have called on Dentsu to speed up the contract award process. According to Mori Yasuo, a more regulatory procedure, and therefore significantly longer, would have risked compromising the success of the Games.
