Three Japanese defense officials at the center of a bid-rigging scandal were slapped with additional charges yesterday in connection with construction projects at two US military bases, officials said.
The projects at Sasebo and Iwakuni bases were worth ¥18 billion (US$152 million), Defense Facilities Administration Agency spokesman Akio Watai said.
Tokyo prosecutors charged two senior engineering officials at the facilities agency -- Mamoru Ikezawa and Takayoshi Kawano, both 57 -- and Takashige Matsuda, 53, the head of a separate government-affiliated organization, Watai said.
He said the three conspired with manufacturers in eight construction projects at two US bases -- five related to runway relocation and ground improvement at Iwakuni and two involving seawalls at Sasebo -- as well as a separate construction project at the defense facility agency's Ichigaya complex in Tokyo, in fiscal 2004 and 2005.
Japan is home to about 50,000 US troops under a bilateral security treaty.
Tokyo District Prosecutors' Office said in a statement that the officials leaked information to the eight construction companies -- many of them Japan's leading construction giants -- in advance so that they could place the most desirable bids.
Officials from eight companies -- Kajima Corp, Toa Corp, Tekken Corp, Taisei Corp, Obayashi Corp, Penta Ocean Construction Co, Shimizu Corp and Nissan Rinkai Construction Co -- also faced fresh charges in the case, the prosecutors said.
Public broadcaster NHK said that the three defense officials acknowledged that bid rigging for defense projects has lasted 40 years.
The officials, arrested in January, were charged last month with conspiring with manufacturers to rig bids to install air conditioning systems at defense facilities between November 2004 and March last year.
"We apologize to the people for causing the grave situation," Defense Facilities Administration Agency chief Iwao Kitahara said in a statement.
"We will do our utmost so that we can recover the public's trust as soon as possible," he added.
The case is the latest in a series of bid-rigging scandals to surface in recent months. Japan has long been criticized for the practice, widespread in public works projects, which virtually shuts out foreign bidders.
Last month, two former officials of the state-owned operator of Narita International Airport pleaded guilty to bid-rigging in electrical construction projects, according to news reports.
Iwakuni, home to a US air station, is about 700km southwest of Tokyo. Sasebo is on the southern main island of Kyushu and is a site of a major US naval base.
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
BIGGER ROLE: Beijing has said it maintains an impartial stance on the war in Ukraine, but by training Russian troops, China is far more involved than previously known China’s armed forces secretly trained about 200 Russian military personnel in China late last year, and some have since returned to fight in Ukraine, according to three European intelligence agencies and documents seen by Reuters. While China and Russia have held a number of joint military exercises since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Beijing has repeatedly said that it is neutral in the conflict and presents itself as a peace mediator. The covert training sessions, which predominantly focused on the use of drones, were outlined in a dual-language Russian-Chinese agreement signed by senior Russian and Chinese officers in Beijing on
RSS