The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry is set to file criminal complaints against three managers of a subsidiary of Nippon Meat Packers Inc., better known as Nippon Ham, on suspicion they defrauded a beef-buyback program, ministry officials said Tuesday.
The ministry is also expected to request that the subsidiary, Nippon Food Inc., voluntarily limit some of its sales activities, they added.
The three managers headed Nippon Food's sales offices in Hyogo, Tokushima and Ehime prefectures. They apparently admitted to masterminding the scheme in hearings earlier this week with ministry investigators.