Sanyu Ishii, who stepped down last year as mayor of the Tokyo suburb of Komae after incurring huge gambling debts, was sentenced August 1 to two years in prison and fined 4 million yen for accepting bribes from local construction firms.

Following his sudden resignation in June 1996, Ishii, 66, disappeared for about a month. It was later revealed that he had amassed personal debts of some 2.8 billion yen due to gambling losses during a vacation in South Korea.

Presiding Judge Hisatoshi Nakano of the Hachioji branch of the Tokyo District Court concluded that Ishii demanded money from the construction firms to cover his debts. According to the court, Ishii received 2 million yen in cash in March 1996 from Yoshiaki Hotta, a 66-year-old local contractor, as a reward for favors given to his firm in bidding for a sewerage system.

In April, Ishii received another 2 million yen from Noboru Wada, 57, also a local contractor, in bribes for similarly providing favors to his company, the judge said. Such behavior "deviates from common sense, and there is no room for leniency," the judge said in the ruling.

During the trial, Ishii pleaded guilty to all charges against him. The former mayor was born to one of the wealthiest families in the city, owning a huge stretch of land. Ishii had served as mayor since 1984. He quit his post one month before the expiration of his latest term in office. In a later election, Yutaka Yano, 49, defeated conservative rivals to become the only Japanese Communist Party member throughout the country to head a local government.