A firm linked to a labor organization that staged street demonstrations in 2000 against then NEC Corp. adviser Tadahiro Sekimoto had received 100 million yen in undeclared money from an NEC affiliate, industry sources said Tuesday.
The firm, Zenrokyo Service, based in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture, failed to declare the income and was recently ordered by tax authorities to pay 30 million yen in taxes and penalties, the sources said.
According to the sources, Zenrokyo Service, which was established by the construction industry labor union Zenrokyo, received the money in early 2000 from the industrial waste disposal firm Haramachi Kyoei Clean. Haramachi Kyoei Clean, based in Hara, Fukushima Prefecture, was temporarily owned around that time by Sincere, an industrial waste recycling firm linked to NEC.
Between January and February 2000, Zenrokyo members staged street demonstrations in Tokyo calling for the resignation of Sekimoto as an NEC adviser.
Sekimoto had filed a defamation suit with the Tokyo District Court against the head of Zenrokyo, and the court ordered the defendant to pay 3 million yen in compensation last August.
Sekimoto, who once served as president and chairman of the electronics giant, was dismissed as an NEC adviser in December. He became NEC president in 1980 and chairman in 1994, and is credited with bringing the firm to the forefront of the market.
But even after giving up the chairmanship and becoming an adviser in 1998 to take the blame for a scandal, Sekimoto continued to exert influence within the company and began publicly criticizing the firm's management around 2000, which is widely believed to have triggered his dismissal last year.