The younger brother of Teikyo University's former chief executive officer could face an 18-month prison term and 42 million yen fine in connection with a money-for-admissions scandal.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office demanded the prison term Monday for Yoshikazu Okinaga, 59, brother of Shoichi Okinaga and former head of Teikyo Gakuen, one of the university's affiliates.
Yoshikazu Okinaga is on trial over 140 million yen in income tax he allegedly evaded by concealing some 310 million yen in donations over a four-year period until 2000.
The money came from the parents of eight students who took exams to enter the university's medical school.
Prosecutors arrested Okinaga on Nov. 6; police say he has owned up to the tax evasion charges.
Shoichi Okinaga resigned last September as CEO of the Tokyo-based university, and the position was then abolished. He also stepped down from the post of president last month to take the blame for the illegal donations.
His son, Yoshihito Okinaga, is now the university's president.
The Tokyo District Court will hand down a ruling after lawyers for Yoshikazu Okinaga give closing arguments on April 7.
The scam surfaced in fall 2001, when it was learned that some parents of students hoping to take the medical entrance exams donated more than 10 million yen each to the university.
The donations run contrary to a 1981 education ministry bylaw that bans donations from students and their families before they are formally admitted.
Last June, tax authorities found several university affiliates had collected about 14 billion yen in donations from parents before the announcement of exam results over a period of seven years up to March 2002.
Of the total, the affiliates failed to declare about 6.5 billion yen in taxable income. The authorities had deemed the undeclared amount as taxable corporate income.