Prosecutors on Tuesday brought fresh charges against a former mayor of Ishioka, Ibaraki Prefecture, and a former aide to a lawmaker over a 2 million yen bribe allegedly made during bid-rigging for a public waterworks project.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office indicted former Ishioka Mayor Yoshishiro Kimura, 60, on a charge of aggravated bribery, and Mitsuro Ozaki, 56, a former secretary to a Diet member and currently an executive at a Tokyo consulting firm, also for bribery.
Kimura allegedly accepted 2 million yen from Ozaki for data on an electrical equipment contract being tendered for a water purification plant. Ozaki allegedly relayed the pricing information to Hitachi Ltd., which won the bid.
Both Kimura and Ozaki have admitted to the charges, prosecutors said.
On Tuesday, the prosecutors also indicted three people working at Hitachi affiliates on charges of bribing the mayor: Susumu Watanabe, 57, director of Hitachi Plant Construction & Services Co., and Kazuyuki Fujieda, 53, and Yoshihito Oyanagi, 44, both of Hitachi Plant Engineering & Construction Co.
According to the indictment, the mayor received the 2 million yen in cash from Ozaki at consulting firm Gyosai Toshi Kaihatsu Kenkyujo in Tokyo on July 30, 1999.
Hitachi Plant Engineering & Construction later offered the consulting firm 5 million yen, investigators said earlier.
Although the prosecutors arrested the mayor on suspicion of bribery, they decided to indict him on the more serious charge of aggravated bribery -- which is punishable by 1 to 15 years in prison -- because they thought Kimura also damaged the public interest as well by revealing the price.
Simple bribery draws prison terms of less than five years.
The prosecutors indicted Kimura and Ozaki on Feb. 5 on charges of obstructing a public works tender by providing information to Hitachi in March 1999.