NEWS > 31 May 2007

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Asahi Shimbun, Japan
31 May 2007

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Japan: Anti-graft cop held in

OSAKA--A police officer on an anti-corruption unit was among six people arrested Tuesday in a bid-rigging investigation over a garbage incineration plant project ordered by Hirakata city, Osaka Prefecture, sources said.

Koshiro Hirahara, 47, an assistant police inspector of the second investigation unit at the Osaka prefectural police, is believed to have served as a mediator between the city government and general contractors involved in the collusion, the sources said.

Also arrested by Osaka prosecutors were Shigeo Morii, a 63-year-old adviser to major general contractor Obayashi Corp., and Hiroshi Tashima, 64, a managing officer of medium-sized general contractor Asanuma Corp., based in Osaka's Tennoji Ward.

The other suspects were two employees of Obayashi, which is based in Osaka's Chuo Ward, and Chikashi Yamada, the 46-year-old president of construction company Kokudo Kensetsu, based in Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture.

The suspects have all admitted to the allegations, according to the sources close to the special investigation department of the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office.

According to the sources, Morii and the five others colluded with senior officials from two other leading general contractors to rig bids for the contract to construct the No. 2 garbage incineration plant.

The project was financed by Hirakata city, and the bidding was held in November 2005.

Those involved predetermined that a consortium comprising Obayashi and Asanuma would win the bid, the investigative sources said.

The consortium won the project with a bid of 5.56 billion yen, 98.4 percent of the city's limit for the project.

The extremely rare arrest of a police officer in a bid-rigging case stunned Hirahara's colleagues.

Even Hirahara appeared surprised when he headed to the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the request of prosecutors.

"I don't even know what charges I am being suspected of," Hirahara was quoted as telling a senior police official.

Hirahara was considered a solid investigator and hard worker who held a key position in the unit assigned to root out corruption and collusion in Hirakata.

He often went undercover on his own to keep in touch with parties related to the corruption cases.

Hirahara, an acquaintance to Yamada, likely became corrupted after making contact with those he was supposed to have been investigating, the sources said.

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Asahi Shimbun, Japan31 May 2007

Japan: Anti-graft cop held in

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Asahi Shimbun, Japan
31 May 2007