Photo/Illutration The Takahama nuclear power plant operated by Kansai Electric Power Co. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A former deputy mayor at the center of a gifts for favors scandal involving Kansai Electric Power Co. wielded so much influence that he was able to coerce officials of the utility to award a company where he served as an executive officer with more work contracts.

The late Eiji Moriyama handed out millions of yen in cash and other gifts to current and former Kansai Electric executives. He died in March 2019 at the age of 90. As deputy mayor of Takahama in Fukui Prefecture, he is said to have been hugely influential in bringing the utility’s nuclear power plant to Takahama.

When the utility released the results of an in-house investigation in October 2019, it acknowledged that Moriyama was privy to sensitive information beforehand about the estimated cost of projects and likely period they would be implemented.

Shigeki Iwane, Kansai Electric president, insists that none of the dealings with Moriyama was illegal, asserting that the process of contracting out projects and the costs was appropriate.

A third-party committee has been looking into the relationship between Kansai Electric and Moriyama. According to sources, several former officials of the utility have admitted to the committee that they came under pressure from Moriyama to hand out more contracts to a maintenance company in Hyogo Prefecture where he served as a board member after he retired as deputy mayor in 1987.

A number of former Kansai Electric officials who worked at either the company’s Wakasa branch in Fukui Prefecture or at the Takahama nuclear plant admitted to accepting gifts from Moriyama when contacted by The Asahi Shimbun.

They also said Moriyama asked them to keep awarding more contracts to the company he was associated with.

Those former officials said they made similar statements to the third-party committee.

One former official who once worked at the Wakasa branch said that in around 2001 Moriyama began soliciting more contracts for the Hyogo maintenance company.

Moriyama threatened to ensure that the Takahama plant's operations would be stopped after the official asked if fewer contracts to the maintenance company was possible, the ex-official said.

According to a private-sector research firm, the maintenance company chalked up sales in 1987 of about 1.9 billion yen ($18 million), but the figure rose sharply to about 6.6 billion yen in 2001. In recent years, Kansai Electric has accounted for about 90 percent of the company’s total business.

“It is clear that only Moriyama’s company experienced an increase in contracts,” said another former Wakasa branch official.

A Kansai Electric official who worked at the Takahama plant in the 1990s conceded, “We made extra efforts to find contracts that could go to” Moriyama’s company.

The official added that part of the contract amount was given to Moriyama as his remuneration.

“As the contracts increased, Moriyama may have used the money for the gifts he provided (Kansai Electric) executives,” the former official surmised.

The third-party committee has determined that about 70 or so current and former Kansai Electric executives and officials received a total of about 350 million yen in cash and gifts from Moriyama.

The internal Kansai Electric investigation two years ago was limited in its time frame so it only could pin down about 20 current and former executives at that time as having received gifts from Moriyama. The third-party committee’s study reveals that Moriyama doled out gifts to a much wider range of Kansai Electric officials and over a longer period.

According to sources, the 50 or so additional Kansai Electric officials found to have received gifts from Moriyama were mainly retired employees who previously worked in the nuclear power sector after 1987 when Moriyama stepped down as deputy mayor.

The third-party committee plans to release the results of its study on March 14.

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