Surprisingly, the northern Japanese city of Sapporo, which is bidding to host the 2030 Winter Olympics, canceled a trip to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne planned for mid-September.

Sapporo speaks of scheduling difficulties in the coordination with the IOC and expressly denies that the most recent bribery scandal surrounding the Olympic Games held in Tokyo last year played a role.

Patrick Welter

Correspondent for business and politics in Japan based in Tokyo.

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But even the suspicion confirms how much Sapporo's Olympic bid is suffering from the events in distant Tokyo.

The beautiful image of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, which, despite the global corona pandemic and even without spectators, took place effectively with a little glamor and in Japanese, is deeply scratched in retrospect.

Arrested for the second time

Haruyuki Takahashi, the prime suspect in the corruption scandal and a member of the Tokyo Games Organizing Committee, has been arrested for the second time on suspicion of bribery.

It is now the second company from which the 78-year-old Takahashi is said to have received a bribe for brokering a sponsorship deal for the games.

The publishing house Kadokawa is said to have paid 76 million yen (around 530,000 euros) in ten installments to a consulting firm that is said to have collected the money for Takahashi.

Part of the sum is already time-barred under criminal law.

The consulting firm was run by an acquaintance of the main suspect, with whom he is said to have previously worked at the powerful advertising agency Dentsu.

The acquaintance and two managers of the publishing house that sponsored the games published program booklets and an expensive book with the results of the games are also in custody.

Meanwhile, in the case of the Japanese textile clothing chain Aoki, which is said to have paid 51 million yen (356,000 euros) as a bribe, Takahashi, the company's founder Hironori Aoki and two other managers have been charged.

The third company under investigation is the advertising agency Daiko Advertising in Osaka, which is also suspected of having paid bribes.

Takahashi is one of the most connected men in Japanese sports marketing.

He is credited with playing a key role in raising the record sum of around three billion euros from local sponsors for the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The public prosecutor's office has also questioned the former chairman of the organizing committee, Yoshihiro Mori, on the allegations of bribery on a voluntary basis.

Mori resigned a few months before the start of last year's Olympics after making an unkind remark that disparaged women.

But unaffected by this, according to a report in the Japanese newspaper "Asahi", a group of industrialists and other people connected to the sport are now collecting money on a private basis to erect a bust of Mori.

This is to recognize his contribution to Japan's successful bid for the 2019 Olympic Games and Rugby World Cup.

Also involved in the group is Mori's successor as President of the Organizing Committee, Seiko Hashimoto, who sharply criticized Mori after his insulting remark.