KOBE (Kyodo) Takarazuka Mayor Kan Watanabe was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of receiving a luxury car as a bribe from two pachinko parlor managers, prosecutors said.
The prosecutors suspect the car, valued at 8 million yen, was provided to the 47-year-old mayor of the Hyogo Prefecture city in November 2003 by Koji Kim, 42, and Tadaharu Fukuda, 49, in exchange for his approval for the launch of their new pachinko parlor, the prosecutors said.
Unable to view this article?
This could be due to a conflict with your ad-blocking or security software.
Please add japantimes.co.jp and piano.io to your list of allowed sites.
If this does not resolve the issue or you are unable to add the domains to your allowlist, please see this support page.
We humbly apologize for the inconvenience.
In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.
By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
SUBSCRIBE NOW
PHOTO GALLERY (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.