Former Kochi Vice Gov. Takashi Yamamoto was arrested Thursday afternoon on suspicion of loaning 1 billion yen in public money to an apparel makers' cooperative despite knowing the loans would sour, police officials said.
The Kochi prefectural police also arrested Ryozo Kawamura, 60, a former chief of the Kochi Prefectural Government's commerce, industry and labor department; Shohachi Miyaji, 60, a former deputy of the department; and Nagamasa Muraki, 48, incumbent assistant chief of the prefecture's commerce and industry policy section.
The four face breach of trust charges.
The loans were granted to Mode Avance -- an apparel manufacturers' cooperative set up by five apparel makers in the city of Nankoku -- without proper checks between September and December 1996 and have since become irrecoverable.