Thursday, November 23, 2006

Four former employees of an affiliate of Yamato Transport Co., a major
delivery company, have been arrested on suspicion of gambling on
professional baseball games at their offices, police said. According to the
police, on-duty drivers from the Kyoto and Osaka branches of Kyoto Yamato
Unyu delivery company placed bets via cell phone e-mail. The betting system
was started by another employee about a decade ago. More than 100 million
yen in bets has been collected annually in recent years. Part of the money
financed further gambling outside the company. Prosecutors received papers
on nine other employees who were also involved. The nine comprise a
50-year-old former manager of the company's Osaka branch and company
drivers. The four have been under arrest since mid-October and were
dismissed by the company along with the Osaka branch manager. Of the four,
Yoshinori Kato, 61, a former deputy manager of the company's Osaka branch;
Tadashi Kato, 33, Yoshinori's third son and a former section chief of the
branch's sales department; and Shinichi Ogawa, 50, a former section chief of
the Kyoto branch's sales department, have already been indicted.