Japan Press Weekly

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2017 March 8 - 14 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Firms constructing 2020 Olympic village offer golden parachutes to Tokyo gov’t officials

Akahata on March 13 learned that retired officials of the Tokyo Metropolitan government in charge of a project of constructing the athletes’ village for the 2020 Summer Olympics parachuted into real estate agencies which were contracted for the project.

The contract to build the athletes’ village was awarded to 11 major real estate companies, including Mitsui Fudosan, Sumitomo Realty and Development, and Nomura Real Estate Development. Construction work began in November 2016.

Based on information hinting at the cozy ties between metropolitan government officials and real-estate developers, Akahata looked into Tokyo government data regarding retired bureaucrats who obtained executive posts in the private sector.

Akahata found out that seven of the 11 real estate businesses offered golden parachutes to 12 high-ranking Tokyo officials. Of the 12, five officials were in charge of the athletes’ village construction project. The seven firms included Mitsui Fudosan Residential, Mitsubishi Jisho Residence, Tokyu Fudosan Holdings, and NTT Urban Development, in addition to the above-mentioned three agencies.

Regarding the site for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic village which was sold to the 11 firms at one-tenth of the current market price, there is an allegation that those companies received such a huge discount in exchange for accepting retiring officials into their firms.