Ex-Nihon University weightlifting manager allegedly forced staff to give him rides

A former manager of Nihon University’s weightlifting club who was arrested for fraudulently collecting school fees from scholarship students also forced coaches to drive him to and from work, Metropolitan Police said Wednesday.

Kenji Nanba, 63, allegedly used his authority as manager to compel staff to give him rides. He is believed to have instructed several coaches to chauffeur him between his home in the city of Komae, Tokyo, and the university’s campus in the city of Fujisawa, Kanagawa — a round trip of nearly 80 kilometers.

He also allegedly made coaches greet him upon his arrival at the university, run errands such as buying lunch, and harshly reprimanded those who challenged his instructions.

According to investigators, Nanba abused his influence as manager over personnel decisions, making it difficult for staff to defy his demands.

Nanba was arrested Tuesday for defrauding ¥2.05 million ($14,000) from the scholarship students. Although tuition and other fees were supposed to be partially or fully waived for the students, he allegedly sent their parents inflated invoices for entrance and school fees.

Under Nanba’s direction, a coach in his 40s created the fraudulent invoices, determining the inflated amounts, police said. Parents were instructed to transfer the money to the club’s bank account. A portion of the funds was then allegedly handed over to Nanba, with the rest paid to the university under the students’ names. Police also found evidence that Nanba reviewed the invoices before they were sent.

Nanba has denied the allegations, telling police: “I received the money with the parents’ consent, under the understanding it was a donation.”

A graduate of Nihon University himself, Nanba became a middle school teacher in Yamagata Prefecture after graduating and was appointed manager of the weightlifting club in April 2000.

He produced multiple Olympic athletes and earned a reputation as a respected manager. In parallel, he served as a professor in the university’s College of Bioresource Sciences, where students reportedly viewed him as approachable and kind.

However, within the weightlifting team, Nanba held what investigators and university officials described as absolute power. In a civil lawsuit demanding restitution of the funds he allegedly embezzled, Nihon University stated that Nanba had been “an unshakable authority figure” whose word could not be opposed by either coaches or athletes.

Nanba was also rumored to have had close ties with Hidetoshi Tanaka, the late former university chairman known as the “Don of Nihon University,” a figure associated with corruption scandals. This relationship reportedly helped Nanba ascend unusually quickly to a professorship.

Nanba’s ability to allegedly defraud funds was facilitated by a long-standing, unauthorized practice at Nihon University which allowed coaches and managers of some athletic clubs to directly collect tuition and fees from students’ families — a system that police believe may have enabled fraudulent activity.

According to university officials, some clubs bypassed the school’s official payment channels by asking parents to deposit entrance and tuition fees into club-controlled bank accounts. These funds were then transferred to the university, but without its oversight or approval.

Despite repeated notices since around 2014 instructing all athletic departments to cease this practice, an internal probe conducted last year found that proxy collection remained in use by at least nine athletic clubs, including the weightlifting, basketball, and cycling clubs,

While no personal misuse of funds was confirmed outside the weightlifting club, officials admitted the system lacked transparency.

In the ongoing civil lawsuit filed by Nihon University seeking the return of improperly collected funds from Nanba, he said that it was common practice in some athletic clubs to admit underqualified students in exchange for agreed-upon “donations.”