The Tokyo High Court on Friday reduced the prison sentence handed to former Construction Minister Eiichi Nakao for taking 60 million yen in bribes from Wakachiku Construction Co. in 1996.

The two-year sentence imposed on Nakao by the Tokyo District Court was reduced to 22 months, while a ruling fining him 60 million yen was upheld.

Nakao, 73, was convicted of accepting the money from Wakachiku Chairman Hiroshi Ishibashi for promising to favor the company in bidding for public works projects.

Ishibashi was not prosecuted because the three-year statute of limitations on offering bribes had expired by the time authorities took action against Nakao.

In handing down the high court ruling, presiding Judge Yu Shiraki said, "(Nakao's) crime was vicious, as the defendant, as a minister, received a large amount of bribes, damaging public trust in the government and a Cabinet minister."

The court reduced Nakao's sentence because he had shown remorse by paying a 30 million yen donation to a nonprofit organization.

Nakao, once an influential lawmaker with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has owned up to the charges against him. He told the high court that Heo Young Joong, an Osaka real estate developer currently on trial on charges of conspiring to damage the now-defunct trading house Itoman Corp., used him in a scheme to defraud an oil material sales company of 18 billion yen in promissory notes.

The company, Ishibashi Sangyo, is Wakachiku Construction's parent company.

Nakao said during his trial that Heo used Nakao's reputation as a lawmaker in the scheme to win the trust of Ishibashi Sangyo. Nakao claimed that Heo pressured him into accepting the 60 million yen from Wakachiku.

Heo, 56, is believed to have introduced Nakao to Wakachiku Construction executives in May 1996.

During the high court sessions, Nakao's lawyers argued he should receive a suspended prison term because he had shown remorse and his health was deteriorating. They said the lower court decision to send him to prison was wrong because it ignored the circumstances concerning Heo.