Kanagawa Prefectural Police arrested Takao Sekiguchi, 59, a department head in Kawasaki's urban development bureau, on suspicion of violating the Act on Prevention of Collusion in Public Bidding, which covers obstruction of bidding, over a city-ordered painting contract, it was learned on the 4th through interviews with people involved in the investigation.
Investigators suspect Sekiguchi leaked a contract price to a person connected to the Kawasaki Painting Contractors Association around 2024, when he was head of the bureau's facilities maintenance department. Police searched the association's office in Kawasaki Ward on the morning of the 4th.
The law — known in Japanese as kansei dango bōshi-hō — is meant to keep officials from steering public contracts to favored bidders by sharing information before tenders close. The arrest puts a senior figure in one of Kawasaki's core departments at the center of a procurement inquiry.