The Metropolitan Police Department's traffic investigation division arrested the president of a private vehicle inspection shop in Shioya, Tochigi Prefecture, on suspicion of passing modified cars through the shaken — Japan's mandatory periodic vehicle inspection — without examining them, among other violations of the Road Transport Vehicle Act.
Tezuka Jidosha president Katsuteru Tezuka, 57, of Shioya, and Yuji Watanabe, 58, a self-employed man from Utsunomiya suspected of acting as a broker for the fraudulent inspections, both admitted to the allegations, the division said. Police also sent papers to prosecutors on the company as a corporate entity on suspicion of the same violation.
According to the division, the shop took inspection requests for illegally modified vehicles — including cars whose rear tires protruded beyond the vehicle's width — through several brokers, and let them pass without carrying out inspections or maintenance.
Over about 16 years, from fiscal 2011 to fiscal 2026, the shop is believed to have handled roughly 2,400 fraudulent inspections and taken in about ¥110 million.
Possible bribery charge
Under the Road Transport Vehicle Act, inspectors at private shops are treated as quasi-public officials. The division is investigating on the additional suspicion of aggravated bribery, believing Tezuka accepted cash in return for the fraudulent inspections.
The arrest and the papers sent to prosecutors concern alleged offenses in June and July, when the suspects prepared false certificates of compliance with safety standards for four modified vehicles without inspecting them and submitted them to a Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism automobile inspection and registration office, among other acts.