2 men found guilty over maglev train project bid-rigging

Parasites suck all the value in Japan upwards (inflating consumer costs way beyond what the ¥1,000 per hour convenience store wage would suggest), shamelessly aided and abetted by the judiciary, its suspended sentences, and its Mickey Mouse fines.

isn't RIGGING the norm in these industries??

yeah, and that basically is what the defense lawyers argued.

Dango is carried out with the tacit approval of the related bureaucrats.

wait a minute, isn't RIGGING the norm in these industries??

Nothing new under the Sun.

Kajima and Taisei corporations - who would have thought it?

Let's be real here. Judges in Japan don't make decisions and that's the truth.

In October 2018, the district court ruled there were collusive ties between the four major contractors...

There are collusive ties in many industries. You only have to look at the almost identical pricing of products in the conbini chains, sushi chains, gyudon restaurants etc to see that there are either agreed upon prices, or promises not to undercut each other.

The vehicle manufactures also have meetings where certain information (including pricing) is ‘discussed’ so that there are no big surprises.

Ichiro Osawa, a 63-year-old former civil engineering sales division manager of Kajima Corp, and Takashi Okawa, a 70-year-old former managing director of Taisei Corp.

Both men will just retire with any ill-gotten gains they've acquired.