The Japan News by The Yomiuri Shimbun
Tokyo Games exec ‘asked IOC to expedite OK of Aoki products’
Haruyuki Takahashi, the former Tokyo Games organizing committee executive arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes, allegedly asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to expedite its approval of Olympic-related products developed by Aoki Holdings Inc., according to sources.
Takahashi, 78, is alleged to have approached the IOC a er asking an executive of the Tokyo organizing committee’s marketing bureau to speed up its screening of products by the major businesswear retailer.
e special investigation unit of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Of
ce believes these approaches were part of e orts by Takahashi to give Aoki preferential treatment in Olympic-related projects.
O cially licensed Games products had to be screened and approved by the organizing committee and the IOC. Once a company had gained approval for its products, it signed a licensing contract with the organizing committee that enabled it to sell the items for a designated period.
Aoki was announced as an o cial Tokyo Games sponsor in 2018. According to sources, Aoki allegedly asked Takahashi for the screening of its products to be conducted swi ly so that the items could be on shop shelves as quickly as possible.
Takahashi allegedly told the marketing executive that the screening should be hurried up. When the executive explained to Takahashi that it was taking time for the products to pass through the approval process at the IOC, Takahashi allegedly contacted the IOC and asked for the process to be expedited, according to the sources.
Aoki’s o cially licensed products hit shelves in the summer of 2019, and the company sold a total of about 30,000 items such as suits and jackets bearing the Olympic emblem. (Aug. 21)