Former Medical University Chancellor Iwamoto Rearrested over ¥170 Mil. Breach; Involving Another Construction Project in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:52 JST, February 3, 2025

Kinuko Iwamoto, former chancellor of Tokyo Women’s Medical University, who was arrested in a breach of trust case involving construction of new buildings, was rearrested on Monday over suspicion of improperly spending about ¥170 million in university funds related to another construction project.

The Metropolitan Police Department suspects that Iwamoto, 78, from Tokyo’s Edogawa Ward, illegally received ¥50 million in cash from an architect, 68, who was paid by the university.

According to investigators, between March 2020 and September 2021 Iwamoto made the university pay “architectural advisor fees” in cash 16 times to the architect toward construction of a new university-affiliated hospital ward in Adachi Ward, with a total of ¥170 million in damage caused. The architect did not do any work on the hospital.

The architect gave the money in cash to a former university employee, 52, who was deputy manager of the “corporate management department,” a division directly under Iwamoto, and this employee then handed the money to Iwamoto.