Text of report in English by Japan's largest news agency Kyodo
Tokyo, Aug. 4 Kyodo - Prosecutors said Monday they arrested Masayoshi Taga, former president of Pacific Consultants International, as well as three other current and former officials of the Tokyo-based construction consultancy firm, over allegations that they bribed a Vietnamese official in connection with a Japanese government official development assistance project in the Southeast Asian country.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office suspects that the four gave a total of $820,000 (around 90 million yen) to a senior Ho Chi Minh City government official in connection with a road building project in violation of the unfair competition prevention law that bans bribing a foreign official.
The three others are Kunio Takasu, 65, a former managing director of PCI, Haruo Sakashita, a 62-year-old executive, and Tsuneo Sakano, 58, a former head of PCI's Hanoi office.
The arrests were the first since provisions banning the bribing of foreign officials were established in the law's 1998 revision.
Takasu is believed to have played the role of passing the cash to the official in the public works bureau of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee - the municipal government, investigative sources said.
Takasu was quoted as saying that he "received an order" from Taga. Investigators suspect that the entire company may have been involved in the bribery. PCI is based in the city of Tama, a suburb of Tokyo.
The senior Vietnamese official admitted to receiving the cash when he was questioned by Vietnamese law enforcement authorities on the request of their Japanese counterparts, the sources said.
In 2001 and 2003, PCI won orders totalling 3.1 billion yen for consultancy services related to a road construction project executed by the Ho Chi Minh City government and financed by Japanese official aid, the sources said.
In August 2006, Takasu, who was then an executive in charge of marketing, allegedly gave $220,000 to the local government official in person on the instructions of Taga. In December 2003, the same Vietnamese official was allegedly given $600,000.
Both sums were intended to reward the official for the order won by PCI, the sources said.
Takasu was then head of a company set up by PCI in Hong Kong with the aim of running operations for PCI to win orders for projects in Southeast Asia financed by loans from the Japanese government.
Taga has been indicted for fraud in connection with a Japanese government-financed project in China aimed at disposing of chemical weapons abandoned by the former Imperial Japanese Army at the end of World War II.
Originally published by Kyodo News Service, Tokyo, in English 0946 4 Aug 08.
(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Story Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific