An official of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is suspected of accepting a bribe of more than 10 million yen from a computer software company executive while working for the former Science and Technology Agency, sources said Wednesday.
The company, based in Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture, is suspected of bribing the 45-year-old official in return for the design of an already-completed nuclear power plant, according to the sources.
Tokyo police are investigating the case and may take action against the executive and the official, the sources said, without identifying either party or the software firm.
The sources did say, however, that the executive is a former private secretary to a House of Representatives lawmaker from the Liberal Democratic Party elected from the Tokai region.
An investigation indicated that the official obtained and handed over data relating to the design of the nuclear plant after being asked by the company executive to do so from around 1998.
He is suspected of using the money to pay off debts, according to the sources.
The company had stored the design on DVD and planned to turn it into a software product that it hoped to sell to the Science and Technology Agency, the sources said.
The official has been working since January 2001 at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, which operates under the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy, itself a part of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
An official at the office of the unnamed LDP lawmaker on Wednesday denied knowing anything about the former secretary.
"I don't know the secretary. I have never met him," the official said.