Photo/Illutration The Tokyo head office of Dentsu Inc. (Takayuki Kakuno)

An investigation into suspected bid rigging of Olympics test events led investigators to focus on three individuals, according to sources.

Officials with the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office and Japan Fair Trade Commission searched several locations Nov. 25, including the offices of advertising giant Dentsu Inc., for evidence of bid rigging on contracts to plan and conduct test events for the 2020 summer Games in violation of the Anti-Monopoly Law. 

Two of the three individuals had ties to Dentsu, the sources said.

Decisions on which companies would win the contracts to hold Olympic test events were made in the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee’s games operation bureau.

The second in command at the bureau was formerly associated with the Japan Association of Athletics Federations while another member was dispatched to the bureau from Dentsu. Those two are believed to have kept in close contact with a Dentsu official who oversaw tendering bids for test events the advertising giant was interested in.

The three individuals are believed to have been central to coordinating which company would bid for the 26 test events.

The Dentsu employee dispatched to the games operation bureau contacted those in charge of entering bids at the other companies to get a feel for which events they were interested in, the sources said.

As a result, many of the bids came from only one company, which prosecutors and the Fair Trade Commission concluded was stark evidence of a lack of competition for winning a bid.

However, a former executive of the Olympic organizing committee pointed out that companies often develop niche expertise for certain sports that leaves them with a virtual monopoly over such events.

“We have absolutely no sense that bid rigging took place,” said a source with a company that won a bid. “We have the know-how and experience that no other company has and we feel that background was assessed fairly” in awarding the contract.

Another source pointed to the unique nature of the Olympics during which events are held simultaneously over a two-week period.

“That means it is impossible for one company to handle everything,” the source said. “If coordinating (with other companies) is described as bid rigging, then such actions did take place to a certain extent. But it is also a fact that without such actions, it would have been impossible to carry out the Olympics.”

A Dentsu source offered a similar view, noting that since the company was involved in handling a number of events, it alone could not have been able to do everything, which led to the result that prior coordination with other companies was necessary.

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