This is the first conviction related to this vocal corruption scandal that erupted in Japan last year, a year after the 2020 Olympics, which ended up being almost held behind closed doors because of the 2021 pandemic.

Hironori Aoki, 84, was found guilty by the Tokyo Magistrate’s Court of paying bribes to attract Aoki Holdings, a Japanese business suit chain, to be an official partner of OJ 2020.

According to local media, prosecutors had requested 30 months in prison for him.

Mr. Aoki was arrested last August along with two of his employees at Aoki Holdings and Haruyuki Takahashi, a former member of the Tokyo Games Organizing Committee.

Mr. Takahashi is suspected of receiving bribes equivalent to more than $472,000 in bribes in 2017 from Aoki Holdings, which became an official partner of the 2020 Olympics the following year.

Other arrests followed on similar charges, including those of the then chief executive of Japan’s major publishing house Kadokawa and the former head of advertising agency ADK, who pleaded guilty in February.

Dentsu, the largest Japanese advertising agency, is also in the crosshairs of investigators who, together with other companies, suspect it of having manipulated tenders for preparatory contracts in connection with the 2020 Olympics.

Another former Olympic Games organization official was also arrested in February in connection with this aspect of the case.

The suspicion of corruption has also long been circulating over the conditions for awarding the 2020 Olympic Games to the Japanese capital by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

In March 2019, the President of Japan’s Olympic Committee, Tsunekazu Takeda, resigned a few months after his indictment by the French judiciary investigating the case.

Mr Takeda is suspected of paying Black Tidings, a Singapore-based company and described as empty shell by French investigators, before and after the IOC’s designation of the Japanese capital as the host city of the 2020 Olympic Games.