Local police increasingly suspect that a number of Nagano Prefectural Government officials were engaged in organized influence-peddling in support of a former vice governor's unsuccessful campaign in the Oct. 15 gubernatorial election.
The arrest Thursday of Yoshiro Kobayashi, 54, head of the prefecture's civil engineering department's comptroller office on suspicion of violating the Public Offices Election Law brought the number of Nagano officials arrested so far in the scandal to five.
Investigators will try to determine if Kobayashi acted in concert with other officials in his department and whether there was any participation by officials at higher levels, police sources said.
Newly elected Nagano Gov. Yasuo Tanaka, a writer and a political newcomer who defeated former Vice Gov. Fumitaka Ikeda in the gubernatorial election, said he thought it likely that Kobayashi acted on the orders of sources higher up.