Senior executives of Taisei and Kajima found guilty of bid-rigging
The Tokyo High Court on March 2, 2023, upheld a lower court's guilty verdict against Taisei Corp. and Kajima Corp. for bid-rigging in the Chuo Shinkansen bullet train project.
The High Court, presided over by Judge Toshikazu Ishii, rejected the defence's appeal against the Tokyo District Court's ruling, which ordered the two major general contractors to pay 250 million yen each in fines and sentenced former Taisei executive Takashi Okawa, 72, and former Kajima executive Ichiro Osawa, 65, to 18 months' imprisonment each, suspended for three years.
At the appeal hearing, the defence claimed that Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) which will operate the maglev line, had decided to award contracts to certain contractors and that there was therefore no competition. The judge rejected the claim. According to the ruling, Okawa and Osawa, in conspiracy with officials of two other major general contractors - Obayashi Corp. and Shimizu Corp., restricted competition by agreeing on contract winners in advance and informing each other of their planned bid prices for three construction sections between April 2014 and August 2015.
Info based on a Report by Jiji Press Tokyo, March 2, 2023 https://www.nippon.com/en/news/yjj20230 ... gging.html Accessed 2023-03-02
[JP] Senior executives of Taisei and Kajima found guilty of bid-rigging
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[JP] High-Speed Maglev Bid-Rigging Case
鹿島と大成建設、二審も敗訴 リニア談合、排除命令で
Kashima and Taisei Lose Appeal in High-Speed Maglev Bid-Rigging Case – Tokyo High Court Upholds Antitrust Ruling
Info based on Kyodo News, quoted by https://www.msn.com/ja-jp/news/national ... r-AA1EO2q1 Accessed 2025-05-15
In a high-profile bid-rigging case involving construction work for Japan's Chuo Shinkansen (Linear Central Shinkansen) – a next-generation magnetic levitation (maglev) train line operated by JR Central – two of Japan’s leading general contractors, Kashima Corporation and Taisei Corporation, have once again lost in court. On May 15, the Tokyo High Court dismissed the companies' appeals and upheld a lower court ruling by the Tokyo District Court, which had rejected their lawsuits seeking to overturn a cease-and-desist order issued by Japan’s Fair Trade Commission (JFTC). The JFTC had found the firms in violation of the Antimonopoly Act due to "unreasonable restraint of trade."
The administrative order, issued in December 2020, accused Kashima, Taisei, and two other major general contractors—Obayashi Corporation and Shimizu Corporation—of engaging in illegal coordination to predetermine which firm would win contracts for the construction of new maglev stations at Shinagawa and Nagoya.
In their legal defense, Taisei argued that no genuine "competition" had existed between firms, claiming this precluded the legal foundation for an antitrust violation. Kashima, for its part, contended that the project was an "unprecedented large-scale construction" effort, asserting that only firms with extensive preexisting preparations could realistically execute the work—making fair competition implausible.
Nonetheless, the court sided with the JFTC’s assessment that the coordinated actions of the firms amounted to a clear restriction of fair competition under Japanese antitrust law.
Kashima and Taisei Lose Appeal in High-Speed Maglev Bid-Rigging Case – Tokyo High Court Upholds Antitrust Ruling
Info based on Kyodo News, quoted by https://www.msn.com/ja-jp/news/national ... r-AA1EO2q1 Accessed 2025-05-15
In a high-profile bid-rigging case involving construction work for Japan's Chuo Shinkansen (Linear Central Shinkansen) – a next-generation magnetic levitation (maglev) train line operated by JR Central – two of Japan’s leading general contractors, Kashima Corporation and Taisei Corporation, have once again lost in court. On May 15, the Tokyo High Court dismissed the companies' appeals and upheld a lower court ruling by the Tokyo District Court, which had rejected their lawsuits seeking to overturn a cease-and-desist order issued by Japan’s Fair Trade Commission (JFTC). The JFTC had found the firms in violation of the Antimonopoly Act due to "unreasonable restraint of trade."
The administrative order, issued in December 2020, accused Kashima, Taisei, and two other major general contractors—Obayashi Corporation and Shimizu Corporation—of engaging in illegal coordination to predetermine which firm would win contracts for the construction of new maglev stations at Shinagawa and Nagoya.
In their legal defense, Taisei argued that no genuine "competition" had existed between firms, claiming this precluded the legal foundation for an antitrust violation. Kashima, for its part, contended that the project was an "unprecedented large-scale construction" effort, asserting that only firms with extensive preexisting preparations could realistically execute the work—making fair competition implausible.
Nonetheless, the court sided with the JFTC’s assessment that the coordinated actions of the firms amounted to a clear restriction of fair competition under Japanese antitrust law.