Antitrust investigators raided the offices of an agriculture ministry affiliate Tuesday for evidence it allegedly organized bid-rigging among contractors for its forest road projects, Fair Trade Commission sources said.
The investigators searched the head office of Japan Green Resources Agency in Kawasaki and its eight regional offices in Hokkaido, Iwate, Fukushima, Gifu, Shimane, Hiroshima, Kochi and Miyazaki prefectures.
The sources said the consultancies are suspected of repeatedly rigging bids to gain a "fair" share of the agency's annual forest road projects.
Senior officials of Japan Green Resources Agency are suspected of preselecting the winning bidders or leaking data on the contracts' upper limits, commission sources said.