Senior Tokyo police, prosecutor apologize to machinery maker over illegal probe
Tetsuro Kamata, deputy superintendent general of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), and Hirohide Mori, head of the public security division of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, visited the company headquarters in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, to offer a direct apology to President Masaaki Ohkawara, 76, and former director Junji Shimada, 72.
The visit came after the Tokyo High Court ruling deeming the investigations by the MPD's Public Security Bureau and the Tokyo prosecution office to be unlawful was finalized.
Kamata bowed his head and stated, "We deeply apologize for the great anxiety and burden caused by the investigations. We are truly sorry."
Mori also offered his apologies and added, "We will strive to exercise prosecutorial powers appropriately to ensure that such incidents do not occur again."
President Ohkawara responded, "It would have been preferable for this apology to come at an earlier stage. I hope that you value those who testified in court and improve the organizations: good police and good prosecution."
The MPD's Public Security Bureau arrested Ohkawara, Shimada and another individual in March 2020 on suspicion of illegally exporting equipment capable of being diverted to military use in violation of the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act. Tokyo prosecutors initially indicted them but subsequently dropped the charges in July 2021.
While President Ohkawara and others had consistently demanded an apology from law enforcers, the MPD and the district prosecutors office had not complied on the grounds that the company had filed a state compensation suit. Their apology on June 20 came about four years after the charges against the company personnel were withdrawn.
Apart from the apology, the company is also demanding that the police and prosecutors launch an investigation into their own probes with the involvement of third parties. While the MPD and the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office have announced that they will respectively examine the problems, they have suggested conducting internal investigations.
The May 28 Tokyo High Court ruling recognized that the MPD's Public Security Bureau arrested the president and others by making a stretched interpretation of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's export control ordinance in a way that was far detached from international standards. "The Public Security Bureau's interpretation lacked rationality, and there were basic problems with their judgment regarding the establishment of the criminal charges," the court found. The court also ruled that the interrogations of Shimada by an inspector at the MPD's Public Security Bureau employed deceptive tactics leading to misinterpretation of ministerial ordinances.
In regard to a temperature experiment on the equipment in question, conducted in an attempt to prove the unlawful export charges, the court acknowledged that the Public Security Bureau and the district prosecutors office neglected to conduct additional experiments while being aware of flaws in the initial experiment. Furthermore, the court ruled that the indictment by the district prosecutors office despite skepticism about the interpretation of the export control ordinance and the absence of extra experiments constituted "a case lacking charges for which the accused could be found guilty."
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The report pointed out that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry had given a negative view of the Public Security Bureau's interpretation that Ohkawara Kakohki's spray dryers could be used for military purposes and therefore fell under the ministry's export control ordinance. In light of this, the report said careful consideration should have been given to the relevance of forming a case against the company officials. Furthermore, a counterpoint to the investigation -- that the equipment could not achieve sufficient internal temperatures for sterilization and therefore was not subject to regulation -- was not thoroughly examined by the Public Security Bureau. Three section chiefs from the bureau's First Foreign Affairs Division who were involved in the investigation had not adequately guided and supervised their subordinates. 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