On the 18th, at a trial at the Tokyo District Court, prosecutors sought a fine of 300 million yen against Dentsu Group (Minato Ward, Tokyo), the largest advertising company, which is accused of violating the Antimonopoly Act (unfair restraint of trade) in connection with a bid-rigging case surrounding the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. The former head of Dentsu’s sports business bureau, Koji Henmi (57), who was also charged with violating the Antimonopoly Act, was sentenced to two years in prison. The defense argued for acquittal on most of the charges and the trial concluded. The verdict will be announced on January 30, 2025. In their closing argument, the prosecution pointed out that the defendant Hemmi colluded with Yasuo Mori (57), former deputy director of the Tokyo Organising Committee’s Games Management Bureau (convicted of violating the Antimonopoly Act) and executives of advertising and event companies to negotiate contracts totaling approximately 43.7 billion yen. They criticized the move for undermining fair and free competition and damaging the trust people had in the Olympics. He also mentioned that Dentsu, including its subsidiaries, received orders for six venues that were subject to the collusion, generating sales of approximately 7.6 billion yen and making a profit of approximately 800 million yen. He said that in the series of bid-rigging schemes, defendant Itsumi and former deputy director Mori played a central role in finding out from each company’s representatives which events and venues they wanted to receive orders for, and that “there was a clear lack of awareness of compliance with laws and regulations.” Meanwhile, in their closing arguments, the defense admitted to coordinating orders for the planning of the test tournament ordered by the organizing committee, but said that the operations of the main tournament were “mainly requested by Deputy Director General Morimoto. He claimed his innocence, saying he did not lead the collusion. Defendant Itsumi stated his opinion, “I cannot accept that this was done to gain unfair benefits.” Six advertising and event companies, including Dentsu, and seven executives from each company have been indicted in connection with the incident. Of these, Hakuhodo was fined 200 million yen, and the former president of a Hakuhodo group company was sentenced to one year and six months in prison with three years of probation; both have appealed the ruling.
>>1 All top executives should be sentenced to at least 10 years in prison If they are going to get away with just a fine, it should be on the order of 3 trillion yen.
Apparently the original idea for the opening ceremony to use projection mapping to have Akira’s Kaneda racing on a motorbike through images of a futuristic Tokyo was shelved due to some stupid old fools at Dentsu, and instead they went with a stupid, lame and embarrassing idea that was the worst thing ever. What’s more, it’s said that it cost more money than the lavish opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. All the people at Dentsu involved in the Olympics should commit suicide and apologize. Let’s put them on a display stand in front of the National Stadium and let the crows peck at them.
Is just 300 million yen enough? The cost of the Olympics is over 1 trillion yen, so if we take 30% of that as the medium amount, it would be 300 billion yen. Even if we split that in thirds between Tsubo, Takenaka, and Dentsu, it would still only be 100 billion yen. So the profit would be 99.7 billion yen. We need to do the Olympics again.
>>19 The Japanese government lol Because Dentsu has been in charge of Japanese election voting programs for many years lol But now Dentsu’s headquarters building has been sold off lol.
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