Police arrested a Tokyo Metropolitan Government official Sunday on suspicion of accepting some 3 million yen in cash in exchange for favors in connection with erosion control work on the evacuated volcanic island of Miyakejima.
Susumu Hara, 49, of Niiza, Saitama Prefecture, was arrested on suspicion of receiving the money in Tokyo on three separate occasions from last November to March this year in exchange for providing favors for a construction materials company connected with the project, police said.
The police also arrested Yoshio Takatsuji, 59, a director of Tokyo-based construction firm Kyosei Kiko, on suspicion of offering the bribes.
Hara and Takatsuji both admitted the allegations, the police said, adding they will search Tokyo Metropolitan Government buildings for evidence on Monday morning.
Kyosei Kiko, set up in 1980, is capitalized at 288 million yen and has some 120 employees. It posted about 6.6 billion yen in sales for the business year that ended in June 2000.
All 3,800 residents of Miyakejima, in the Izu island chain some 200 km south of the capital, were evacuated last September due to volcanic activity, including large-scale eruptions and pyroclastic flows.