The Japan Fair Trade Commission on Tuesday conducted on-site inspections of the transportation bureau of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and six construction firms over alleged bid-rigging, people familiar with the matter said.
The firms are suspected of rigging bids for construction work ordered by the bureau to maintain railroad tracks. They are Totetsu Kogyo, Tsuboi, Hayakawa Kensetsu, Tokyu Kidoh Kogyo, Nisshin Kogyo and Sankikensetsu, a unit of Kyushu Railway.
The firms allegedly started conspiring years ago to prearrange winners of bids for track maintenance work on railways run by the transportation bureau, people familiar with the matter said.
The railways include the Toei Asakusa, Mita, Shinjuku and Oedo subway lines, the Toden Arakawa tram line and the Nippori-Toneri driverless transit line.
Totetsu Kogyo successfully won a bidding in April 2024 for work to renew rails between Azabu-Juban and Roppongi stations on the Oedo Line for ¥259.6 million. Tokyu Kidoh was awarded a contract for work on the Mita Line at ¥170 million in a bidding in June the same year.
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