Japan Press Weekly

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2016 October 5 - 11 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP Tokyo Assemblyperson raises question of bid rigging allegation over Toyosu market project

Japanese Communist Party Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly member Kachi Kayoko on October 5 at a plenary meeting of the assembly pointed to an allegation of bid rigging over the construction work for new market facilities at Toyosu by citing the fact that the estimated cost for the construction increased from an initial 99 billion yen to 274.7 billion yen. She urged the governor to thoroughly investigate the issue.

Kachi said that in 2013 the Tokyo Metropolitan government invited bids for the Toyosu market construction contracts, but no bidder was successful. After hearing from companies which joined in the 2013 bidding, the Tokyo government in February 2014 again invited tender, with the ceiling prices increased by 1.6 times. As a result, three joint ventures headed by general construction contractors won the contracts. The bid ratio—the percentage of the winning bid to the ceiling bid— stood at 99.9%.

The JCP lawmaker stressed that given this history and the extremely high bid ratio, government-approved bid rigging is highly suspected.

In addition, Kachi demanded a third-party review on whether it was appropriate for the Tokyo government to increase the ceiling bid by 60%.

Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko said that a task force dealing with the Toyosu market issue will look into the allegation.

Past related articles:
> Ex-Tokyo gov’t officials parachute into contract-awarded firms related to Tsukiji fish market relocation [May 14, 2014]
> Former Tokyo gov’t officials rehired by firms involved in Tsukiji transfer project [February 27, 2012]