Narita mayor arrested over bribe

CHIBA (Kyodo) The mayor of Narita, Chiba Prefecture, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of taking 10 million yen in exchange for awarding a contract to manage a municipal garbage incinerator, police said.

Osamu Kobayashi, mayor of Narita, Chiba Prefecture, gets into a car outside his house to head to a local police station Saturday morning. KYODO PHOTO

Police had begun questioning Osamu Kobayashi earlier in the day.

They allege he received 10 million yen in cash in March from two executives of TEC K.K., a garbage disposal company based in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, for arranging to give it the contract to manage the facility in fiscal 2005.

Police also arrested the two executives -- Takayuki Iizuka, 47, former president of TEC, and Noriaki Kondo, 48, former vice president -- who have admitted to giving Kobayashi the cash, they said.

The city of Narita has been opting for single tendering, where only a single supplier is invited, as opposed to an open competitive bid process. TEC has won the contract to run the Izumi garbage incinerator 17 years in a row starting with fiscal 1990.

The city's environment department recommended to Kobayashi last year that a competitive bidding system be used to cut costs and improve management efficiency, a recommendation the mayor rejected.

Kobayashi, 64, was elected mayor in April 2003 after serving in the municipal assembly for 12 years while working for Japan Airlines.