Major meat processor Itoham Foods Inc. admitted Friday to being involved in a meat importer's evasion of some 940 million yen in customs duties on pork imported from Europe in 2002 and 2003 as the firm's fraud trial opened before the Tokyo District Court.
Prosecutors said in a statement that Itoham President Masami Ito claimed while being interrogated that about 80 percent of pork imported to Japan evades customs duties.
A 54-year-old former employee at Itoham, whose name has been withheld, also claimed the company would have lost out to rival companies unless it handled the "dark pork," meaning pork imported without paying tariffs, the prosecutors said.