Photo/Illutration The Takahama nuclear power plant (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A town government official who gave large sums of money and lavish gifts to 20 Kansai Electric Power Co. executives was also closely involved with companies that were awarded contracts from the utility.

Former Takahama deputy mayor Eiji Moriyama, now deceased, worked in an advisory capacity and as a board member for companies that conducted construction, maintenance and security work at Kansai Electric nuclear power plants in Fukui Prefecture.

Moriyama, who served as deputy mayor in the 1970s and 1980s, was hugely influential in bringing the nuclear power plant to Takahama.

Kansai Electric admitted on Sept. 27 that 20 of its executives received about 320 million yen ($3 million) in cash and gifts from Moriyama over the seven years from 2011.

Moriyama died in March at age 90.

Two companies at which he served as an adviser--Yoshida Kaihatsu, a civil engineering and construction company based in Takahama, and a nuclear power plant maintenance company with headquarters in Hyogo Prefecture--were awarded at least 11.3 billion yen in contracts over a three-year period for work related to Kansai Electric's nuclear power plants in the prefecture.

The companies also received contracts from Kanden Plant Corp., a Kansai Electric subsidiary for which Moriyama also served as an adviser for many years.

A tax audit by the Kanazawa Regional Taxation Bureau found that Yoshida Kaihatsu had given Moriyama about 300 million yen in dubious funds.

Work records show that the maintenance company received a total of about 8.6 billion yen in contracts between 2016 and 2019 either from Kansai Electric or heavy machinery manufacturing companies that in turn had contracts with Kansai Electric.

The maintenance company mainly handled work on the cooling systems at reactors of three Kansai Electric nuclear plants in Takahama, Oi and Mihama.

Between 2015 and 2018, Yoshida Kaihatsu also secured 2.7 billion yen in contracts either from Kansai Electric or major construction companies for work at the Takahama and Oi plants.

Yoshida Kaihatsu and the maintenance company won contracts worth at least 11.3 billion yen for work at Fukui nuclear power plants operated by Kansai Electric.

Of that figure, Kanden Plant awarded about 490 million yen in contracts to the maintenance firm and about 150 million yen to Yoshida Kaihatsu.

According to a private research company, the maintenance company established a branch in Wakasa, Fukui Prefecture, in 1972, two years before the first reactor began operations at the Takahama nuclear plant.

A company official said Moriyama served an advisory role in finding local companies capable of helping it with projects. The official said the orders from Kansai Electric were aboveboard and that Moriyama was not directly involved in company management.

A Yoshida Kaihatsu official stated that the company had appropriately dealt with the problems uncovered in the tax audit.

Kansai Electric officials said Sept. 27 that dealings with Yoshida Kaihatsu had nothing to do with gifts from Moriyama to Kansai Electric executives.

Moriyama also served as a board member for a Takahama firm that handles security at nuclear plants after he left the Takahama town government. The company also received contracts from Kansai Electric.