Keiichi Tsuruoka

Keiichi Tsuruoka ( Japanese 鶴 岡 啓 一 , Tsuruoka Keiichi ; born May 18, 1940 in Chiba , Chiba Prefecture ) is a Japanese politician and was Mayor of Chiba City from July 2001 to May 2009. On April 22, 2009, he was arrested on suspicion of corruption.

Tsuruoka studied law at Tokyo University and then became a civil servant in the Ministry of the Interior . From 1989 he was posted to the State Land Authority . From 1990 he worked on the board of the operating company of the Tōkyō-wan-Aqua-Line , from 1994 then in the city administration of Chiba. When Mayor Asahi Matsui retired in 2001, Tsuruoka ran for successor with the support of the LDP , Kōmeitō and the Conservative Party . He won with around 36% of the votes cast. In 2005 he was re-elected for a second term. In December 2008 he announced that he would not run again in the mayoral election on June 14, 2009.

In April 2009, Tsuruoka was arrested as part of a corruption investigation by the Tokyo Prefecture Police . The construction company Azuma Kigyō, based in Kōtō, is said to have paid him 1 million yen (around 8,000 euros) in return for preferential consideration when awarding a road construction contract . Tsuruoka is the first arrested mayor of a major Japanese city since 1993, when the mayor of Sendai was indicted in a Zenekon scandal. On May 1, 2009, Tsuruoka resigned from the mayor's office. On May 13, 2009, he was formally charged.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from June 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Chiba mayor arrested in bribery sample. In: Asahi Shimbun . April 23, 2009, archived from the original on May 14, 2009 ; accessed on April 24, 2009 . 
3. ↑ Chiba's mayor arrested. In: The Japan Times . April 23, 2009, accessed April 24, 2009 . 

Web links

• Chiba City: Mayor's Office