Arrested former Taisei exec denies maglev bid-rigging allegations

Mar 04, 2018 | News On Japan

Mar 04, 2018 (Japan Times) - A former official of a major contractor under arrest for his alleged involvement in rigging bids for work on the Tokyo-Osaka maglev project has denied the allegations, sources said Saturday.

Takashi Okawa, former managing director of Taisei Corp., told Tokyo prosecutors after his arrest on Friday that he was â€œnot in the environment to rig bids with other major construction companiesâ€ because the sales division he belonged to was not able to estimate working costs on its own, the sources said.

Okawa, 67, was involved in the project for the magnetically levitated train for over a decade at Taisei. He has admitted to meeting with officials from rivals Kajima Corp., Obayashi Corp. and Shimizu Corp. to exchange information on the project.

But he also insists he was not in a position to negotiate with them on fixing prices for the bids because accurate calculations by specialists in the company would have been needed to estimate the cost of the work, the sources said.

Taisei also rebuffed the allegations by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutorâ€™s Office on Friday with a statement denouncing Okawaâ€™s arrest as â€œtotally unacceptable.â€

The prosecutors believe Okawa was able to rig bids with the other contractors because he had over 10 years of experience as an influential senior officer at Taisei.

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