TOKYO (TR) – A former Japan Post employee has been re-arrested on suspicion of receiving a luxury watch worth 1.2 million yen as a bribe in exchange for providing favorable treatment in corporate contract bidding, police announced last week.
Nobuyuki Yoneda, a 37-year-old former worker at Japan Post’s Tokyo Branch, was initially arrested for accepting bribes from a transport company in connection to the outsourcing of mail collection duties — specifically, the gathering of mail from street post boxes and delivering it to local post offices.
According to police, Yoneda was served a fresh arrest warrant after investigators discovered he allegedly rigged the bidding process for another transport firm, Osaka-based Trust, between February and April of this year. In return for the lucrative contract, Yoneda reportedly accepted the high-end timepiece.
Tetsuya Kamikita, the 45-year-old representative of Trust, was also arrested on suspicion of handing over the bribe.
Investigators revealed that Yoneda’s illicit perks did not stop at jewelry; he also allegedly received items including a backpack and sneakers from the company.
Police are now probing the case further, suspecting that accepting kickbacks had become a routine practice for the disgraced postal worker.
