A former vice chairman and three other staff members of a now-defunct association for youth exchanges pleaded guilty Monday to defrauding the government and a public organization out of 26.8 million yen in subsidies in 2001.
The four from the World Youth Visit Exchange Association entered the pleas during the opening session of their Tokyo District Court trial.
The association was under the jurisdiction of the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry. Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori was chairman of the association at the time of the fraud.
The four on trial are Hiroki Suzuki, 67, then the association's vice chairman and a practicing lawyer; Masami Kanno, 57, its secretariat director; Toru Nakagawara, 48, a section chief; and Eiji Jin, 43, an employee.
In their opening statement, the prosecutors said the four engaged in such practices starting around February 1991, and the fraudulently obtained subsidies were used to cover the association's general administrative costs.
The four stand accused of forging bills to obtain 12.3 million yen in subsidies in September 2001 from the Japan Keirin Association, a bicycle-racing promotion body.
The falsified bills included padded travel expenses for students who participated in the youth association's exchange program and padded numbers of participants.
Suzuki, Kanno and Jin are also accused of fraudulently obtaining 14.5 million yen in subsidies from the education ministry around July 2001 for travel and accommodations expenses for events including a Japan-Britain student exchange program.
The association was established in 1965 and became an incorporated foundation in 1969.