An assistant director of the Foreign Ministry who was arrested Thursday on suspicion of defrauding the state out of some 423 million yen by padding hotel bills for international meetings in 1995 has admitted padding accommodation fees for the past 20 years, investigative sources said Friday.
Akio Asakawa, 56, the assistant director of the First West Europe Division, part of the ministry's European Affairs Bureau, told Tokyo police he did not initially intend to embezzle the money for his own private use, the sources said.
Asakawa, assigned to the Foreign Minister's Secretariat effective Thursday, was arrested the same day with Shozo Saito, 51, sales director of the Hotel New Otani in Tokyo, and Takashi Ojio, 45, director of sales and marketing at the Hotel New Otani Osaka, on suspicion of swindling the ministry out of the money during Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meetings in 1995.