Ex-Japan Post Worker Nabbed over Alleged Bribery Case

Tokyo, May 20 (Jiji Press)–Police arrested a 37-year-old former employee of Japan Post Co. on Wednesday over aggravated bribery in connection with a contract for collection services. Nobuyuki Yoneda, who worked at a branch office of the company in Tokyo’s Koto Ward, allegedly received cash and other benefits from a contractor in exchange for facilitating a consignment contract to collect letters and other items from mailboxes. The second investigation division of Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department also arrested two individuals including Koichi Nishimura, 56, representative of Haruki Express, a transportation company in the capital’s Itabashi Ward, for allegedly giving bribes. Investigators have not disclosed whether the suspects have admitted to the allegations. Between October 2024 and May 2025, Yoneda allegedly received a total of 100,000 yen in cash and had Haruki Express cover Tokyo Disney Resort VIP tour fees, accommodation charges and other costs totaling about 1.1 million yen, in return for providing benefits to the company. According to the MPD division, Yoneda was in charge of bidding as chief of the postal and logistics operations department. At Japan Post, the target price had been determined based on cost estimates and other documents submitted by participating bidders. Yoneda appeared to have set a low target price to ensure that no bids were successfully accepted. He allegedly told Haruki Express an amount slightly above the target price and had the company replace its cost estimate documents. Haruki Express submitted a bid of about 92 million yen, and after the rebidding also failed, a discretionary contract was ultimately concluded with the company at roughly double that amount, for about 180 million yen. With contract renewals every four years, the total value of orders over four years amounted to some 736 million yen. Last year, Japan Post provided information about the case to the police, prompting the division to launch an investigation. In April this year, Japan Post dismissed Yoneda on disciplinary grounds. Following the arrest, Japan Post’s Tokyo branch released a comment, saying, “We take this situation very seriously and will thoroughly reinforce employee training.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]