Bribe-paying Oita educator walks

OITA (Kyodo) A former elementary school principal in Oita Prefecture was given a suspended prison term Thursday for bribing a senior local board of education official in return for the employment of her son and daughter as teachers.

The Oita District Court found Ikumi Asari, 53, former principal of a municipal elementary school in Saiki, Oita Prefecture, guilty of the bribery charge and sentenced her to a suspended 14-month term.

This was the first sentence handed down on any of the eight people accused of bribery involving education officials in Oita.

Court findings showed that Asari, in conspiracy with a separate board of education official currently under trial, gave ¥3 million in cash plus ¥1 million worth of shopping vouchers to Katsuyoshi Eto, 52, a former senior official at the Oita prefectural board of education, in conspiracy with another former board official, Tetsuro Yano, 52.

Eto and Yano are currently facing trial.

Asari's act "made people's distrust in public education in Oita Prefecture inextinguishable," presiding Judge Takafumi Miyamoto said, adding, however, that it is unreasonable to blame only Asari, because an investigation showed that unfair practices were rampant in the recruitment of teachers in the prefecture.