The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has decided to re-arrest former ward assembly members who were arrested in a government bid-rigging case involving bids for construction ordered by Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward for leaking bid information on three other construction projects. This was revealed through interviews with investigators. It appears that several companies formed a voluntary organization and lobbied legislators, and the Metropolitan Police Department is investigating the incident, believing that fraud had become commonplace.
Suspect Hidehiko Shimazaki (64), who was a member of Chiyoda Ward's ward assembly, and Suspect Itsumi Yoshimura (61), who was the director of administrative management, submitted bids for the renovation work of the ward's elementary school and kindergarten in 2020. He was arrested in January this year on suspicion of violating the Government Collusion Prevention Act for informing contractors in advance of the number of contractors participating in the bidding.
According to people involved in the investigation, subsequent investigations revealed that former lawmaker Shimazaki and others are suspected of having given the names of participating contractors in three other bids, including renovation work for a children's center that took place in the same year. The plan is to re-arrest him on the 14th.
Additionally, it is believed that some of the contractors, more than a dozen of them, formed a voluntary organization and requested that they ask legislators about the construction they wanted to bid on, but the statute of limitations has expired for the contractors, so it is expected that the case will be postponed. .
The Metropolitan Police Department believes that fraud has become commonplace and is conducting an investigation.