An employee of scandal-hit Kokudo Corp. was found dead Nov. 21 on the seashore in Yamagata Prefecture, and police are looking into the possibility he killed himself, according to sources familiar with the case.

The 54-year-old employee, who was a vice chief of Kokudo's general affairs department, was fielding requests from companies that want Kokudo to buy back Seibu Railway Co. shares amid the scandal linked to Kokudo's concealment of information, the sources said.

About 70 percent of the nearly 70 companies that had bought Seibu Railway shares from Kokudo -- without being told about the railway operator's false financial statements -- have asked Kokudo to buy back the shares.

Ken Moroi, chairman of an advisory panel of the Seibu Railway group, told a news conference he had earlier been told the employee had died of heart failure and had apparently been exhausted.

Kokudo, an unlisted company based in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, runs the Prince Hotels chain and sports facilities such as skiing and golf resorts. It owns 48.6 percent of Seibu Railway shares and therefore effectively controls the group.

Kokudo sold some Seibu Railway shares it had held off-market to nearly 70 companies for about 65 billion yen in August and September. But 40 of the companies later demanded that Kokudo buy back the shares, worth 47 billion yen, as they incurred considerable latent losses after Seibu Railway admitted to falsifying its financial statements.

Kokudo has indicated it intends to comply.