Yokogawa Bridge Corp. said Monday that President Yasuo Harada will resign June 20 to take the blame for the company's role in rigging bids for public bridge construction projects.
The major steel-frame bridge maker said it decided to let Harada leave "in order to clarify the responsibility of the current management team" in light of a criminal accusation filed by the Fair Trade Commission on May 23. The accusation names Yokogawa Bridge and seven other heavy industry firms as violators of the Antimonopoly Law.
Yokogawa Bridge said its board approved a motion to drop a plan to promote Harada to chairman June 29. It also moved an executive personnel reshuffle forward that will make Harada's resignation effective June 20.
"We take the situation seriously, and will do our utmost to regain trust by revamping our management," Chairman Shuichi Hasegawa said. Four executives, including Hasegawa and Harada's successor, Managing Director Tsunehiro Sasaki, will have their remuneration cut by 5 percent to 30 percent for three months beginning July.
Japan's oldest steel-frame bridge maker said it will also scrap a plan to turn Yokogawa Construction Co. into a wholly owned subsidiary and will review its business strategy.
On May 20, Yokogawa Bridge struck a deal with Yokogawa Construction to make the construction firm a wholly owned unit.