Crime & Courts

Former Dept Chair at National Cancer Hospital Charged with Taking ¥1.7 Million Bribe from Supplier

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
The Metropolitan Police Department

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:20 JST, September 21, 2023

Yusuke Hashimoto, a former department chair at the National Cancer Center Hospital East, has been arrested on suspicion of taking a bribe in exchange for favoring a medical equipment supplier during his tenure. Hashimoto, 47, headed the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Oncology at the hospital in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police made the arrest Thursday, and are actively investigating the matter on suspicion of collusion between Hashimoto and the supplier.

According to sources familiar with the case, Hashimoto is alleged to have taken a roughly ¥1.7 million bribe in May 2021 from medical equipment manufacturer Zeon Medical Inc., headquartered in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. The company manufactures and sells stents, and Hashimoto is thought to have pushed the use of these stents at the hospital in exchange for the bribe.

The former president of Zeon Medical, Noboru Yanagida, 67, has also been arrested on a bribery charge by the police.