The “dango” seemed to be on the decline. The illegal agreement to the japanese, however, seem to still enduring, as evidenced by the serious suspicions which surround the one of the most important projects in recent years, the line of the Chuo Shinkansen magnetic levitation (Maglev) which will connect Tokyo to Nagoya in forty minutes on the horizon to 2027 and to Osaka in fifty-seven minutes by the year 2045.
Massive project involves an estimated cost of 9 000 billion yen (67 billion euros), carried out by the railway company JR Central, whose chairman emeritus Yoshiyuki Kasai is close to the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and has always a strong influence in the japanese industry, it would have given rise to an arrangement between the giants of japanese of concrete, nicknamed “Zenecon” (for ” general contractors “), Obayashi, Shimizu, Kajima and Taisei.
Between 8 and 19 December, the prosecutor’s office of Tokyo and the competition commission raided the headquarters of these companies who have obtained shares nearly equal, 15 of the 22 sites connected to the line, having been the object of a tender by JR Central.
Obayashi would have especially benefited from information provided by a vice-president of the railway company, on the cost estimates and the other companies bid for the construction of emergency exits. In the amount of 9 billion yen (68 million euros), the project was awarded in April 2016.
Ancient practice
The magnitude of the scandal is already incentivising the agency of financial services in interest, the State having consented to JR Central 3 000 billion yen (22.6 billion euros) of loans at favourable interest rates.
Especially, it reflects the persistence of dango, which was the original business booming, like that of the society of parcel deliveries Sagawa in 1993. In 2006, Obayashi had forced its leaders to sign a commitment to comply with the antimonopoly law, but the following year, all…
