The founder of a Tokyo consulting firm pleaded guilty Wednesday to paying 13.34 million yen in bribes to a Tokushima governor and two Ibaraki mayors between 1997 and 2000 for information or favors related to local public works projects.

In his first trial session before the Tokyo District Court, Mitsuro Ozaki, 56, founder and head of Gyosai Toshi Kaihatsu Kenkyujo (Gyosaiken), also admitted acquiring inside information on public works tenders by the two Ibaraki cities Ishioka and Shimotsuma.

Ozaki said he gave the bid information to local construction and electronics firms in exchange for money, which he used to bribe politicians.

Ozaki, former secretary of Lower House member Michihiko Kano, admitted to evading 32.8 million yen in corporate taxes by failing to declare 109.6 million yen in kickbacks to Gyosaiken over a two-year period to March 2000.

"The charges are correct," Ozaki told the court after prosecutors read his indictment. Kano quit the Democratic Party of Japan in February to take responsibility for the Ozaki scandal.

Ozaki's lawyers said they have no plan to contest the charges. But they told the court Ozaki did not set up the consultancy just to engage in illegal business, as reports alleged, and that the three bribery incidents were exceptions.

"The prime business of Gyosaiken is to provide mediation (between politicians and private firms) and counseling services (for the firms), by using Ozaki's political and business ties" that were fostered during his 17-year stint as secretary to the lawmaker, one of his lawyers told the court.

In their opening statement, the prosecutors said Ozaki acquired inside information about an Ishioka waterworks project in March 1999 from then Mayor Yoshishiro Kimura and leaked the information to a local electronic engineering company, a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd. The firm paid Ozaki 5 million yen as a reward, and he in turn handed 2 million yen to the mayor, they alleged.

Ozaki illegally learned the upper bid limit for a public library construction project in Shimotsuma from Mayor Hiroshi Yamanaka in August 1999 and passed it on to Tokyo-based Toda Corp., later paying a bribe of 8.34 million yen to Yamanaka, prosecutors said.

Ozaki paid 3 million yen in bribes in 2000 to then Tokushima Gov. Toshio Endo as a reward for granting a cultural facility project to a local construction firm, they said. Although Ozaki paid 8 million yen in bribes to Endo, the three-year statute of limitations has run out regarding the remaining 5 million yen that Endo was paid in 1997.

The Gyosaiken scandal broke early this year, resulting in the arrest of 15 people, including politicians, company executives and others.

Last month, former Ishioka Mayor Kimura pleaded guilty before the same court to receiving bribes from Ozaki and leaking the city's public works information to him.

Earlier this month, Endo admitted in court that he received bribes from Ozaki. Former Shimotsuma Mayor Yamanaka denied receiving money from Ozaki.

The elected officials relinquished their posts after the scandal broke. Ozaki quit the consulting firm and moved to his hometown in Kyushu to live with his mother after he was released on bail April 23.

But he was still at the helm of the consulting firm July 3 when it held a shareholders' meeting.