Ex-Tokyo Games Exec Got Pointed Out Excessive Orders for Dentsu

Tokyo, Feb. 11 (Jiji Press)--A former Tokyo Games organizing committee official arrested in a high-profile bid-rigging case was found to have modified a list of companies planned to be named venue-by-venue prime contractors as advertising giant Dentsu Inc.'s excessive dominance in the list was pointed out, it was learned Saturday.

Yasuo Mori, 55, former deputy chief of the organizing committee's operations department, removed Dentsu as possible prime contractors for some venues after the then superior told him around spring 2018 that Dentsu was named "too often" in the list, according to sources familiar with the matter.

It came to light that such a list was shared among officials of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics organizing committee before the body decided to conduct competitive bidding for the planning of Tokyo Games test events.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special squad and the Fair Trade Commission are believed to be aware of such a situation and are hearing from former committee staff who were involved in order adjustment work.

According to the sources, Dentsu started listing companies with track records for each sport as possible winners of contracts for each venue in 2017 and the list was sent to the organizing committee's operations department by email around January 2018.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]