Global marketing and advertising agency Dentsu has been fined 300 million yen (US$1.94 million) after admitting to rigging bid contracts for test events ahead of the Olympic Games in Tokyo while former Dentsu executive, Koji Henmi, has been handed a two-year prison sentence, suspended for four years, for his role in the awarding of contracts.
Japanese news agency Kyodo reported that Dentsu admitted to “rigging bids” for test event contracts worth more than 500 million yen (US$3.2 million), although it denied colluding with others to restrict around 43.1 billion yen (US$280,000) worth of contracts related to Games operations.
The Tokyo District Court heard that companies which were awarded test event contracts were told they were likely to be awarded contracts for the Games themselves, with Presiding Judge Kenji Yasunaga noting that the Tokyo-based Dentsu was aware of this.
Henmi’s sentence was suspended after the court ruled that he did not act for personal gain, and that there was no evidence that the information was exchanged in a way that enabled the firms to secure assignments.
Henmi was arrested in February 2023 alongside Yasuo Mori, a former official on the Tokyo 2020 organising committee. The pair were alleged to have conspired with one another to award the test event contracts. Mori received a suspended two-year sentence in December 2023.
During the trial, Dentsu acknowledged its involvement in bid-rigging for the initial test event planning projects. However, it denied any role in the organisers' decision to award the remaining projects to the same contractors as the initial ones.
Prosecutors alleged that the organisers secretly agreed with Dentsu and others to automatically grant the remaining projects to them.
The focus of the trial has been on these latter projects, which represented 99% of the total value of all the relevant contracts.
In February 2023, a former organizer, six companies including Dentsu, and six officials from these companies were indicted.
Among the six companies, Hakuhodo Inc., Japan’s second-largest advertising agency next to Dentsu, and event production company Cerespo Co. also received guilty verdicts. Both have appealed the rulings.
Both Dentsu and Henmi have appealed against the rulings made by the Tokyo District Court.
Image: Tokyo's Japan National Stadium during the 2020 Olympics.
Born in the English county of Dorset, Nigel Benton is the co-founder and Publisher of Australasian Leisure Management, Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific’s only magazine for professionals in all areas of the leisure industry and the www.ausleisure.com.au website - the go to news resource for industry leaders and professionals.
With a long-term commitment to communicating all that is best about the leisure industry (aquatics, attractions, entertainment, events, fitness, parks, recreation, sport, tourism and venues) his career has been defined by an ability to develop and implement industry communications.
Starting his career working in heritage visitor attractions and then adventure travel in Africa and the Middle East, an interest in writing about his experiences led to his change of career into magazine journalism and publishing.
In addition to publishing, Nigel speaks on marketing communications at a range of industry events.
He was made a Life Member of the World Leisure and Recreation Association in 2006 and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (London).
As of October 2024, he was inducted into the Australian Fitness Awards Roll of Honour at the 2024 AUSactive National Awards.
Among a range of published works and features, his comments on a Blog (blogspot) from 2007 to 2011, when this website went live in its current form, may be interesting to reflect back on.
His philosophy on life is to be kind to all and to indulge those that you love.
His passions include family, Newcastle United and motorcycles (especially British ones) as well as caring for Stella the pug.
Support our industry news service
We hope that you value the news that we publish so while you're here can we ask for your support?
As an independent publisher, we need reader support for our industry news gathering so ask that - if you don't already do so - you back us by subscribing to the printed Australasian Leisure Management magazine and/or our online news.
Switch to smarter fitness management software with Clubworx based in Australia that enables fitness businesses to start or grow their business with ease. - all in one place from anywhere in the…
Parkequip is an approved supplier under the NSW LGP Contract 308 for a range of products including play equipment, shade, shelters, safe fall, park furniture and school outdoor seating.
All materials…
Track. Engage. Retain
GreeneDesk is a suite of cloud based software solutions helping health clubs, leisure centres and swim schools to effectively track progression, improve customer engagement and…
Links Modular Solutions was a leading provider of high-quality, innovative software solutions for aquatic and recreation facilities.
Links Modular Solutions is now part of Xplor Technologies.
Clubware’s online gym software is not your run of the mill management system. It has been carefully designed to incorporate all the elements that a fitness club would need. How did we do that?…
Since 2019, Active World's development team has been delivering a comprehensive single solution that caters to the diverse requirements of successfully operated and managed leisure centres. The…
SLE Worldwide Australia is a Managing General Underwriter specialising in insuring risks in the world of Sports, Leisure and Entertainment.
Be it relaxing, playing, organising or watching sports,…