Newfrom Japan
Policy
Tokyo, July 20 (Jiji Press) — The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday found a former senior Japanese education ministry official and three others guilty in a corruption case.
The court sentenced Futoshi Sano, former director-general of the ministry’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, to two years and six months in prison, suspended for five years, for allegedly receiving bribes related to a program Ministry support aimed at subsidizing certain private universities.
Sano, who will turn 63 on Thursday, accepted a request to grant favorable treatment to Tokyo Medical University in exchange for an effective guarantee from the university to let his second son take his entrance exam in February 2018, according to the decision.
The former official “shed light on the fairness of entrance exams”, said presiding judge Goichi Nishino.
Sano plans to appeal the decision, according to his attorney.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
