Photo/Illutration Hidetoshi Tanaka, former board chairman of Nihon University (From Nihon University’s website)

Tokyo prosecutors on Dec. 20 indicted Nihon University’s former Chairman Hidetoshi Tanaka on a charge of violating the Income Tax Law.

Tanaka, 75, has admitted to the charge of evading taxes, investigative sources said.

Tanaka did not report the kickbacks he received from businesses that had connections to the university in 2018 and 2020, which totaled about 118 million yen ($1.04 million), and avoided paying a total of about 52 million yen in income taxes, according to a task force of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office and others.

According to sources, Tanaka’s wife received most of the cash and she was in charge of their tax returns.

Prosecutors also investigated Tanaka’s wife for a possible conspiracy charge. But prosecutors have decided not to prosecute her because her involvement was as a subordinate.

Tanaka initially denied the financial transactions when he was arrested on Nov. 29. He resigned as Nihon University board chairman on Dec. 1.

But ultimately, he admitted to all the cash that he had accepted and said, “I was told by my wife later that she had received the money.”

He told investigators that all the money was income belonging to him.

He told prosecutors that he instructed his wife “to only report his salary income and rents received,” sources said.

He has expressed a willingness to amend his tax returns, sources said.

The income of about 118 million yen that was not reported in his tax returns includes a total of 75 million yen from Masami Yabumoto, 61, former chief of Osaka-based Kinshukai, a major medical corporation group, who has been charged with criminal breach of trust.

It also includes 30 million yen from a construction company in Kanazawa, 10 million yen from an architectural firm in Osaka Prefecture, and a total of about 3 million yen that Tadao Inoguchi, 64, a former board member of the university and a close confidant of Tanaka, had collected from multiple businesses.

The cash was either a token of appreciation for being selected for design work in the reconstruction of Nihon University’s Itabashi Hospital in Tokyo’s Itabashi Ward or gifts celebrating Tanaka’s reappointment as the university’s board chairman or his birthday.

The National Tax Agency’s Criminal Investigation Department, which has investigated the matter jointly with Tokyo prosecutors, on Dec. 17 charged Tanaka at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office.

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