Suspected of misrepresenting local Matsutake as hometown tax return product arrested on August 8 at 18:45

A contractor who had been undertaking the delivery of a return for tax payment from Hachimantai City, Iwate Prefecture, sent a matsutake harvested outside Iwate Prefecture, pretending to be a local matsutake mushroom. I was arrested by the police on suspicion.

Arrested were the representative director of “Dream Project” in Hachimantai City, Iwate Prefecture, Susumu Seki (57), the branch manager of Hachimantai Branch, and Mitsuhiro Kikuchi (38).

According to police investigation, the two had been undertaking contracts from Hachimantai city from June to November, from the purchase of the hometown tax return goods to shipping, but from October to November last year, There is a suspicion of violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act as if we were sending Matsutake mushrooms taken outside Iwate Prefecture, pretending to be products.

According to the police, there are dozens of cases that have been suspected of being shipped falsely from local Matsutake.

The police have not revealed the approval or disapproval of the two.

According to Hachimantai City, the total amount of donations collected in the hometown tax payment last year was 162.44 million yen, and matsutake was the most popular among return items.

Hachimantai City's Deputy Mayor Okada commented, “I am very surprised. I would like to consider what to do with my hometown tax payment system as a city, and how to respond to people who have sent matsutake in the future.”