Japan’s 2030 Winter Olympics bid promotion possibly suspended

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
17 Feb 2023 12:18
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A major Japanese former advertising firm president was found guilty of bribing an Olympics official to ensure his firm’s sponsorship for the winter games.

Giant Olympic rings are seen behind Japan's national flag (Reuters)

The Japanese city of Sapporo's bid to host the 2030 Olympics has been battered by a corruption scandal surrounding the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Japanese advertising executive, Shinichi Ueno, pleaded guilty to bribing an Olympics official in order to ensure sponsorship deals for ADK Holdings, Japan's third-largest advertising agency. As the story came out to the open, the Tokyo court is investigating the bid-rigging and bribery implications.

As prosecutors in court began to name the convict with his list of allegations, the 69-year-old ex-executive says, "nothing stated is wrong".

In a statement published by ADK following Ueno's indictment, the large firm said that they will take the situation "very seriously" and now aim to reconstruct their governance and compliance system.

The bribery scandal went on to persecute a suit retailer, a publishing firm, and a merchandise company that sells toys and little mascots.

The allegations included the bribing of then-Tokyo Games executive Haruyuki Takahashi for a sum of almost 14 million yen ($103,000) to secure sponsorships.

Ueno was said to be "desperate" to land a contract for his firm and resorted to Takahashi, who is viewed as a pioneer of sports marketing in the country, for help.

As such, Takahashi is now facing multiple bribes charges reportedly worth approximately 200 million yen, almost $1.5 million.

As prosecutors continue to investigate the scandal, they also arrested a former senior Tokyo Olympics official with three other businessmen, accused of rigging a series of extremely competitive bids and contracts for the Olympics events. The reported total of these bribes sums up to 40 billion yen ($304 million), according to local media.

Others decided to step down before investigations got the best of them and before they were possibly caught for potential corruption.

This applies to the former head of Jaan's Olympics Committee, Tsunekazu Takeda, who chose to step down from his position in 2019 after prosecutors decided to launch an investigation into allegations of corruption linked to Tokyo's Olympics bid.

In conclusion, the list of scandals and bribery discoveries led the northern city of Sapporo to suspend the promotion of its 2030 winter Olympics bid since they may have blown Sapporo's chances in the eyes of the public.