The two highest-ranking executives of a Tokyo university are suspected of having played a pivotal role in a graft scandal that led to the arrest of a senior education ministry official, sources close to the matter said Thursday.
Tokyo prosecutors believe that Masahiko Usui, chairman of Tokyo Medical University's board of regents, is likely to have asked the 58-year-old ministry official to help the institution get selected for a subsidy program, according to the sources.
Futoshi Sano, a former director general of the ministry's science policy bureau, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of accepting a bribe from the private university.