OSAKA -- The director of a medical corporation was arrested Thursday on suspicion of bribing a then professor at the prefectural Nara Medical University in an ongoing recruiting scandal, the Osaka District Public Prosecutor's Office said.
Bunnosuke Ishida is suspected of paying 4.2 million yen to Seiji Miyamoto, now a professor emeritus at the university, to thank him for arranging to send seven doctors to the Toho Kashiba Hospital in Kashiba, Nara Prefecture, which is run by Kishokai, Ishida's Osaka-based medical corporation.
Prosecutors said Ishida, 60, paid the money directly into Miyamoto's personal bank account in 24 remittances during the period between January 1998 and November 1999.
While Ishida admitted paying the money to Miyamoto, he has denied the bribery allegation and said the money was a donation to the university, prosecutors said.
Miyamoto once worked part-time at Ishida's hospital.
Miyamoto, 65, was arrested Nov. 1 on suspicion of taking bribes from the head of an Osaka hospital in exchange for recommending doctors newly trained by the university work at the Nara hospital. Tadayoshi Fujita, 54, head of the Kaiseikai Fujita Hospital in the city of Osaka, was also arrested the same day in the case.
Prosecutors said they will not serve a fresh warrant on Miyamoto in connection with Ishida's arrest, but will question him on the matter.
They are also investigating allegations that a former university president and head of the university-affiliated hospital took bribes from Fujita.