Photo/Illutration The Closing Ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics on Aug. 8, 2021 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Prosecutors have begun investigating widespread bid rigging allegations for the rights to organize test events at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, according to sources.

Investigators suspect that bidders conspired to decide in advance which companies would win bids for planning the test events, which are preparatory competitions held well ahead of the Games to review event conditions and ensure that security is sufficient.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office’s special investigation division launched an investigation in cooperation with the Japan Fair Trade Commission into whether the companies violated the antimonopoly law, which bans unfair restrictions on trade.

The Tokyo 2020 organizing committee solicited bids for work related to the test events, including the event planning, and major companies, including advertising firms such as public relations giant Dentsu Inc., ultimately won the bidding.

Between May 2018 and August 2018, the organizing committee conducted 26 auctions for the test events where it evaluated the bidders’ qualifications and prices.

Nine companies, including advertising firms such as Dentsu, and one joint venture company won bids.

The total price tag for the 26 contracts landed around 540 million yen ($3.84 million), with the contracts costing anywhere from around 4 million yen to 60 million yen.

But authorities suspect the companies involved colluded to decide in advance who would win each bid, according to sources.

Between 2018 and 2021, 56 test events were held.

The companies that won bids for planning the test events also took charge of running the test events, as well as competitions in the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

The companies won these rights through “negotiated contracts” without going through the bidding process. 

One of the negotiated contracts fell in the range of 1 billion to 2 billion yen.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office’s special investigation division has indicted Haruyuki Takahashi, 78, a former organizing committee executive, for accepting bribes over the selection of Games sponsors.

Suspicions about the test-event bid rigging surfaced during the investigation into whether Takahashi was bribed, according to sources.

The major advertising firms ADK Holdings Inc. and Daiko Advertising Inc. were among the bid winners for the test events, in addition to Dentsu, which played a leading role in coordinating Tokyo 2020.

Officials from ADK and Daiko have been arrested in connection with charges of bribing Takahashi.

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