A company that was responsible for selling officially licensed stuffed toys of the Tokyo Olympics mascots is suspected of giving several million yen to a former executive of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee, investigative sources said Friday, amid a growing bribery scandal.
Prosecutors are probing whether Haruyuki Takahashi had lobbied the committee to extend favor to Sun Arrow over the sale of stuffed toys for the Games, the sources said.
The latest revelation came after Takahashi, 78, was indicted earlier this month for receiving bribes totaling around ¥51 million ($356,000) from business suit retailer Aoki Holdings.
He was also served with a fresh arrest warrant for allegedly accepting bribes totaling ¥76 million from major publishing company Kadokawa.
Additionally, Takahashi, a former senior managing director of Japan's largest advertising agency Dentsu, is under suspicion of requesting the use of services by ADK Holdings and Daiko Advertising for sponsor selection.
Investigators are expected to question those familiar with the advertising agencies' roles as early as next week.
Sun Arrow is known for selling stuffed toys depicting characters from Studio Ghibli's "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Kiki's Delivery Service," among others, and also distributed stuffed toys of the mascots from the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998.