As per the reports by Mainichi Shimbun, Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, the chairman of Kadokawa, the Japanese publishing company, has intended to resign from his position after his indictment on Tuesday by The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office.
In addition to that, the Kadokawa company posted a press release shedding light on the matter:
“We take this matter very seriously, and deeply apologize to all those concerned including our readers, customers, authors, creators, business partners, shareholders, and investors for the considerable inconvenience this matter has caused.”
The company will also host a press conference addressing the situation on October 5 at 5:00 p.m. JST (4:00 a.m. EDT).
Arrested on September 14, Tsuguhiko Kadokawa was charged with bribing a former member of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics organizing committee. Though his company has denied the allegations since his arrest, his sudden decision to resign from his position as the chairperson of Kadokawa company has increased the scrutiny on the matter.
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As per the reports, the Kadokawa company has paid 69 million yen (US$480,000) to Haruyuki Takahashi, a former executive on the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, via a consultancy firm linked to him through a former associate. The bribery accounts for holding sponsorship rights of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Kazumasa Fukami, another name linked to the whole scandal, is the firm’s owner. Both Fukami and Takahashi worked for Dentsu Inc. before Takahashi became the executive Olympic organizing committee.
The Kadokawa company allegedly signed a deal with the firm in May 2019 to pay 69 million yen in installments. Portions of which went directly to Takahashi. Several other Kadokawa executives, namely Toshiyuki Yoshihara and a former senior official Kyо̄ji Maniwa, were arrested on September 6 following the scandal’s repercussions.
The prosecutors arrested Takahashi on allegations of receiving 51 million yen (about US$363,000) in bribes from Aoki Holdings Inc., a garment firm, and a sum of 14 million yen (about US$99,600) from an Osaka-based advertising agency, Daiko.
Following the allegations, the founder of Aoki Holdings, Hironori Aoki, was found guilty. At the same time, Takahashi denied the allegations with claims that the money was just a consultancy fee and there was “Absolutely no recognition on his part that the money constituted a bribe.”
Founded in 1945 by Genyoshi, the media conglomerate Kadokawa company consists of several daughter companies and subsidiaries producing anime films such as Belle, Weathering with You, and Bungou Stray Dogs: Dead Apple.
Source: The Mainichi
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