Haruyuki Takahasi lobbied IOC members to try to win votesTakahashi received significant funds from Tokyo bid committee New questions about Tokyo’s successful bid for the 2020 Olympics have been raised after a businessman admitted he had given digital cameras and Seiko watches to lobby Games powerbrokers, including an influential International Olympic Committee figure suspected by French prosecutors of taking bribes to help Japan’s bid.
Haruyuki Takahashi, a former executive at the influential advertising agency Dentsu Inc, told Reuters he had given the gifts when lobbying IOC members such as Lamine Diack, the former head of athletics’ governing body, the IAAF. “You don’t go empty handed. That’s common sense,” Takahashi told Reuters, referring to the gifts he gave Diack and his son Papa Massata, before adding: “They’re cheap.”