Japan: Contractors admit bid-rigging on maglev project

General contractors Obayashi and Shimizu admitted on Tuesday, July 10, to their involvement in rigging bids for a high-speed magnetic levitation railway project, reported Japan News.

On the first day of the firms’ trial at the Tokyo District Court, senior officials of the companies respectively pleaded guilty over the case, in which they are suspected of involvement in unfair restriction of trade in violation of the Antimonopoly Law.

According to the indictment, former Taisei executive Takashi Okawa, senior Kajima official Ichiro Osawa and other officials of the four companies held meetings, roughly between April 2014 and August 2015, to predetermine winners of contracts for three sections of the planned Shinagawa and Nagoya stations, ordered by Central Japan Railway Co, or JR Tokai, for the ¥9 trillion (US$80.4 billion) Chuo Shinkansen maglev project.

Taisei Corp and Kajima Corp, which were also indicted in the case, are currently in the pretrial procedures for sorting out points at issue.

Full Content: The Japan News

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