The investigation of suspected bid-rigging for contracts to plan test events for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics has found that the organizing committee sent an email to Dentsu Inc. prior to bidding with a list of bidders and a note stating, "We have agreed on them."
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation squad seized the email and is investigating it on suspicion that several former committee members and Dentsu executives were involved in an advance agreement on which bidders would win.
According to sources, the committee and the major advertising company had been interviewing prospective bidders since around 2017 about their desire to secure contracts to plan test events conducted by the committee, and then shared a list of bidding companies. In the spring of 2018, before the bidding, the committee sent Dentsu an email saying that they had reached an agreement to go with the list, which was attached to the email.
