Prosecutors indicted 26 companies and eight senior employees Wednesday on suspicion of rigging bids for steel bridge projects.
It is the largest group of firms ever to be charged for bid-rigging under the Antimonopoly Law. In 1997, a bid-rigging scam involving waterworks meters surfaced, in which 25 firms were indicted.
The Tokyo High Public Prosecutor's Office took the action after the Fair Trade Commission filed criminal accusations Wednesday against 18 companies for alleged involvement in the bid-rigging. It had already accused the eight other firms on May 23.