KADOKAWA obtains a copy of the letter sent to employees on the day of the “forced investigation.

KADOKAWA is currently under investigation by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office.
At each of our offices, mainly in Iidabashi, a large number of people in suits without employee identification cards are conducting investigations and asking questions.
I am sure you are all surprised to learn that these are all members of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office (TDPO), which is carrying out a mandatory investigation.

As stated in our earlier post on this channel to President Natsuno, we are cooperating fully with the investigation.
I would like to ask all executives and employees to respond to the questions they have been asked to answer honestly and to promptly hand over any materials they are requested to submit. (line break mama)

This text, obtained independently by “Friday,” was sent from the company’s General Affairs Department to the “Slack” channel used by employees of the publishing giant KADOKAWA at around 4:30 p.m. on September 6.

Haruyuki Takahashi, 78, a director of the Organizing Committee for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, was re-arrested on charges of bribery for accepting a total of approximately 76 million yen in bribes from KADOKAWA in a corruption case involving the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

The head office of KADOKAWA is now under mandatory investigation.

As the first sentence of this article indicates, it is an “extraordinary situation” for a company to be subjected to a mandatory investigation. In the event of internal misconduct, large companies often request their employees to take a “public relations approach. If someone outside the company asks you about the misconduct, you are asked to respond in this way.

But in the case of a mandatory investigation, it is different. You must fully comply with the investigation by the Special Investigation Department, and making poor repairs or destroying evidence may lead to other pursuits later on. As soon as the special investigators in suits enter the company’s premises, they are surrounded by a sense of tension as if they are not allowed to touch even a single desk drawer or computer power supply,” said a reporter from a national newspaper.

A young KADOKAWA employee who came to work at the head office during the investigation said, “I was on my way to work when the investigation entered the company.

I learned of the investigation on my way to work, but there had been rumors among my coworkers that something might be happening soon, since there had been daily reports of allegations against our upper management. When I arrived at work in the afternoon, I found people in suits working on something, and there was a strange atmosphere in the company.

President Natsuno also sent a message to the Slack channel, which most of the employees read, saying, ‘Although we cannot give you any details at this time due to the ongoing investigation, we will share them again as soon as the company is in a position to explain. Employees on the flat floor like us are confused because the information is not being conveyed to us. What should we explain to our business partners starting tomorrow? ……”

Vice Chairman Maki Matsubara, 69, who served as president from February 2007 to June 2009, during the period of preparation for the Oripara, and Chairman Norihiko Kadokawa, 78, were raided on the same day of the mandatory investigation. Chairman Norihiko commented at a press conference on May 5, “I don’t know the facts, I don’t know what happened,” he said. Until the investigation progresses, the upset and confusion among KADOKAWA employees will not subside.