The Japan Fair Trade Commission has raided nine railway-linked construction firms on suspicion of repeatedly rigging bids for track-laying projects for the Hokkaido Shinkansen.
JFTC officials on Tuesday carried out on-site inspections of the nine companies, including Daitetsu Kogyo in Osaka City and Meiko Construction in Nagoya City, on suspicion of antitrust law violations.
Officials also searched the Yokohama-based Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency, or JRTT, which commissioned the projects.
Work is currently underway to extend the Hokkaido Shinkansen line from Shin Hakodate Hokuto Station to Sapporo Station. The project is divided into 10 sections.
Sources say bids for five of the sections may have been rigged.
Companies that did not win a project are believed to have made high bids or withdrawn from the process.
The JFTC plans to confirm whether arrangements have been made for sections that have not yet been put up for bidding, and investigate how the JRTT was involved.
AloJapan.com