A former member of the Central Social Insurance Medical Council pleaded guilty Friday to accepting bribes from Japan Dental Association executives between 2001 and 2003 in return for providing them favors.

During the opening session of his Tokyo District Court trial, Takeshi Shimomura, 74, a former member of a health ministry advisory panel and former chief of the Social Insurance Agency, said he regretted having betrayed the public's trust.

"I should have been more assertive" and refused the bribes, he said. "I really regret that."