A former executive director of the predecessor to the Japan Green Resources Agency was found dead early Tuesday after an apparent suicidal plunge, hours before he was to be questioned again in connection with a bid-rigging probe, police said.
The death in Yokohama of Shinichi Yamazaki, 76, came just one day after farm minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka, 62, himself embroiled in a political funds scandal partly linked to the Japan Green Resources Agency, committed suicide in his Diet member's residence in Tokyo.
Yamazaki had allegedly established the bid-rigging mechanism led by officials of the Japan Green Resources Agency, which is known as J-Green. Prosecutors raided his home Saturday and interrogated him several times, including Monday. They had planned to question him Tuesday as well.
Matsuoka had been facing a Monday confrontation in the Diet over his receipt of political donations from J-Green contractors.