Former Japanese government official arrested over bribes

A former employee of the Japanese Finance Ministry was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of receiving bribes from the Nomura Securities company, the Japanese news agency Kyodo reported.

Tokyo police arrested Takehiko Isaka, who is now a senior employee of the state-run Japan Highway Public Corporation, the agency said.

Prosecutors said they suspect Isaka received the bribes between July 1994 and December 1995 for helping Nomura become lead underwriter for the corporation's foreign bonds, in the knowledge that the securities house wanted to underwrite more bonds.

The corporation is under the control of the Construction Ministry and operates a huge network of expressways across Japan.

They also arrested two former senior Nomura executives - former vice president Naotaka Murasumi and former managing director Isao Teranishi - on suspicion of giving bribes to Isaka.

Isaka was allegedly wined, dined and treated to golf on 41 occasions and received shopping coupons, Kyodo said.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.