OSAKA -- A 65-year-old professor emeritus of Nara Medical University was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of receiving bribes from a private hospital director in exchange for helping the hospital recruit young doctors, investigative sources said.
Seiji Miyamoto, former professor of emergency medicine at the Nara prefectural medical school, is suspected of receiving some 3 million yen from Tadayoshi Fujita, director of the hospital in the city of Osaka. Fujita, 54, was also arrested Wednesday.
Investigators suspect Fujita transferred 100,000 yen into Miyamoto's bank account every month for about 21/2 years until he retired in March, in exchange for sending young doctors to the hospital.
The arrest came after a special investigative squad searched Miyamoto's home in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, the professor's office at the medical school and the emergency center of the medical school hospital in connection with the alleged bribery.
Miyamoto assumed the post of professor of emergency medicine in August 1989, when the medical school first created the position.
The investigators suspect he abused the vast discretionary power he had when he was in the position, including having full control of personnel matters.
It has been a long practice for private hospitals to ask medical school professors to send young doctors to work at their hospitals. The deep-rooted practice has often been criticized for fostering corruption.
One of the professors at the medical school told reporters that he was totally shocked by the news of Miyamoto's arrest.
"I believe other professors are not doing such a thing. . . . I do not want to comment on whether (Miyamoto's alleged conduct) is right or wrong. I feel sympathy toward him because I am in the same position as professor," he said, declining to be named.