Photo/Illutration Takeo Hirata when he headed the Cabinet Secretariat section promoting the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Yet another official associated with the Tokyo Olympics is out on his ear after an online news report that he accepted expensive golf lessons for free.

Takeo Hirata headed the section within the Cabinet Secretariat in charge of promoting the Games and also served as a special adviser to the Cabinet.

The government announced Aug. 13 that Hirata had stepped down from all his posts, effective immediately.

His resignation stems from a report on the Bunshun Online website that described him as using a government vehicle to take him to a sports facility in Tokyo’s popular Roppongi night club district for golf lessons.

According to the report, the golf outings to the Rizap Golf branch in Roppongi began about three years ago. The lessons would have normally cost at least 4 million yen ($36,500) in total, but Hirata got them gratis.

Rizap was certified by the Cabinet Secretariat section that Hirata headed as a company involved in sports operations under a government program for health promotion. However, section officials said certification was not something done arbitrarily and ruled out any direct connection between it and the golf lessons.

Opposition lawmakers who questioned section officials on Aug. 11 were told that Hirata said he had paid the invoices that he received. However, the officials also said that Hirata never gave them a specific amount for the amount he paid.

That same day, Hirata told reporters he was looking into the matter.

Hirata had headed the section since it was set up in October 2013 when Shinzo Abe was prime minister, soon after Tokyo was chosen to host the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.

Hirata was named as a special adviser to the Cabinet in August 2013. Abe's successor, Yoshihide Suga, re-appointed Hirata to head the section after he took over as prime minister last September.

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