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© Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Tokyo 2020 Olympic bid leader questioned in Diet
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glasshouse
At least its in the right section here Crime....
Yubaru
This isn't a national security issue, no one's lives are at stake here, so why the secrecy? Unless of course you are trying to cover your butt and the committee's butts at the same time!
nath
I hear London are already designing their logo for the 2020 Olympics as this fiasco is going to end up with Tokyo losing it. Of course the Brits will not steal the design as Japan did and the stadium is already built.
Pukey2
At least it wasn't "I was drunk and don't remember"
Kobe White Bar Owner
This is called a house of cards.
danalawton1@yahoo.com
Sorry but if what he did was not actually illegal.... it should be. Think about it. The $2 million in "consulting fees" was paid to the Son of a very influential person in the Olympic bid process. The Son! There must be some rule in the Olympic Bid mandate that says.... It is against the rules to compensate any Board Member or Family Member in order to gain favor in the Decision. The saddest part about this... no one seems surprised or outraged.... just business as usual.
papigiulio
We looked into the content of this contract but it was already put in the shredder.
wanderlust
Does anyone really expect the truth to be told in a diet session? There is history of regrettable misunderstandings as people evade the truth.
BTW, looks a really high-class consulting office!
Lloyd Weems
The idea of the chronically corrupt Toshiaki Endo urging clarity is laughable.
theeastisred
Citizen 2012:
Exactly. And non-disclosure agreements always have a provision that disclosure can and will be made when required by relevant governmental authorities. It doesn't come much more authoritative than a parliament committee. He should be hounded on that point mercilessly until he comes clean.
Citizen2012
Hiding behind a NDA when questioned by the diet to explain if you did any wrongdoings with public money, this is looking more and more shady. Send the police and grab that contract for god sake, do it before some other country ask for it.
Kobe White Bar Owner
Cut and paste from the UK press.
"The head of the Istanbul 2020 Olympic bid that lost out to Tokyo has said that the 2020 Games may have to be staged in London if a French criminal investigation concludes that the Japanese made illegal payments to the company at the centre of the athletics corruption scandal."
carpboy
international lobbying advice...
Such as... who to bribe and with how much - an 'understanding' gained
itsonlyrocknroll
Tsunekazu Takeda is stalling. Not surprised if disclosure clauses relating to commercially sensitive interests are not wheeled out next.
After all there is technically no definable existence of contractually recognized principle of disclosure.
The question is how far into the deep and smelly the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology and by association Central Government are involved? ....
Scrote
The obvious questions are: Why did you, Mr Takeda, as one of the parties to the contract, agree to a confidentiality clause? What does the clause state, exactly? What are the penalties for breaking the clause? I think He can speak freely in the Diet if he wanted to, but as he is a crook he chooses not to.
Other questions: How and why did you decide to use that particular firm? How many other firms submitted bids for the work? Where was the call for bids advertised? What were the deliverables in the contract and why can't we see them?
Instead of appearing before the Diet Mr Takeda should be in a cell being questioned by the police. I expect the shredder in his office is working overtime at the moment. Once the evidence has been destroyed we will be treated to the usual scene of men carrying boxes of documents out of the building.
SenseNotSoCommon
Olympic bid committee plays this nation and others for fools. The responsible cabinet minister acquiesces:
A quick search found this on Endo:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiaki_Endo
rainyday
So what he is saying is that we can't tell you, the democratically elected legislators of this country, the content of a contract that we entered into with a corrupt foreign official, unless we get thatsame corrupt official to agree to it. And given that the contract likely contains evidence of both us and the corrupt foreign official having committed a serious crime, we'll just sit behind his failure to agree to it and hope that buys us enough time for this to blow over.
Part of the problem is that Diet committees themselves have limited powers to compel the production of evidence like this. When the prosecutors opena criminal case and the issue gets into the court system, the content of the contract will have to be disclosed.
Citizen2012
Takeda's refusal to disclose a simple commercial agreement will only comfort the French investigators that they are in the right track. The picture of the so called Japanese hired consultant office for securing a worldwide event like the Olympic games is almost a guilty confession by itself.
Alistair Carnell
You'll be able to get away with murder soon enough if you grease the right palms
danalawton1 ; I suggest you google Issei Sagawa.
Alistair Carnell
The mods here are a faceless bunch of trucking shunts.
Moderator: Using language like this reflects poorly on yourself.
rainyday
Yubaru - yeah I know, the "elected legislators" I was referring to were the members of the committee he was testifying before, who are elected members of the Diet.
Yubaru
Alright then just what "serious crime" has been committed?
sillygirl
The guy denied receiving the money yet Tokyo insists it was a leg image consulting fee. What's wrong with this picture?
Gobshite
Doesn't look like the office of a 2 million dollar per contract consultancy, does it.....
nedotjp
a company called Black Tidings. / AAF President Lamine Diack, who is facing corruption charges.
Black tidings & Lame duck.. this is another Olympic Willie Coyote script... cept its our taxes / not funny
Spanki
Don't worry AKB48 will redeem Japans image come the opening ceremony....
rainyday
Well, it is being alleged that a bribe was paid to a foreign official, which I believe would clearly constitute an offence under Japan`s Unfair Competition Prevention Law, which deals directly with the issue of bribing foreign officials (Japan is a signatory to the Convention of Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials and criminalized such bribes to comply with the treaty).
retiree
The 2020 Olympics preparation is looking more and more like a "dramedy" with each new fiasco revelation. Are we going to actually see it?
Aly Rustom
Because if he did, it would spell another scandal- that's what he really means
Alex Einz
I am not really surprised about all the under the table dealing, the IOC itself is basically corrupted org and should be disbanded a while ago. What does surprise me is Japan not going the extra mile to cover the bribe properly from the start and I am sure they could someone better to bribe than that Papa dude....
Yubaru
Please read the article again. The guy testifying before the Diet committee session is not an elected official.