A former top bureaucrat at the Construction Ministry acknowledged Wednesday receiving 6 million yen in 1996 from a relative of the company chairman who allegedly bribed former Construction Minister Eiichi Nakao, but he said no request accompanied the money and that he paid the sum back.
Haruho Fujii, currently president of Japan Highway Public Corp., said he found 1.5 million yen transferred to his bank account in September 1996 in the name of a relative of Hiroshi Ishibashi, former chairman of Wakachiku Construction Co., who is suspected of having given Nakao a 30 million yen bribe in October of the same year.
Fujii said 1.5 million yen was transferred every month until December, when he paid the total sum back.
Investigative sources say Ishibashi asked Fujii, who stepped down as vice minister in July 1996, to become an executive at a Foreign Ministry affiliate that Nakao was involved in setting up.
Nakao was arrested on suspicion of accepting 30 million yen from Ishibashi in connection with making Tokyo-based Wakachiku one of the ministry's designated bidding contractors.
The three-year statute of limitations on bribe arrests has expired in Ishibashi's case.