Hironori Aoki, his brother Takahisa Aoki and executive director Katsuhisa Ueda have been accused of paying $28,000,000 (£176,000/$210,000/€199,500) to Haruyuki Takahashi, who had influence over a committee that was charged with sponsorship selection.

The hearing took place at Tokyo District Court today and is the first related to a series of bribery cases involving Takahashi and other companies over Olympic sponsorships, as reported by Kyodo News.

Takahashi was a former senior managing director at Dentsu Inc, and during the trial prosecutors alleged that he "relentlessly communicated" with them over sponsor selection.

Prosecutors said former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, 85, who was chief executive of the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, had trusted Takahashi with finding sponsors.

Hironori Aoki, Takahisa Aoki and Ueda have all been accused of providing cash to Takahashi on more than 30 occasions between September 2019 and March 2022, with these payments allegedly totalling ¥28 million.

Takahashi was allegedly paid ¥51 million (£320,000/$385,000/€363,000), although charges for payments made before that period were dropped.

Prosecutors claimed that the deal signed in September 2017 between Aoki’s company and a consulting firm headed by Takahashi constituted a bribe, although Takahashi claimed he was innocent of bribery and received legitimate consulting fees.

Takahashi has already been served with four charges, while former ADK Holdings President Shinichi Ueoni has resigned from his post over the ongoing scandal.

Chairman of the Kadokawa Corporation publishing company Tsuguhiko Kadokawa has also been charged in relation to the scandal and accused of paying bribes to Takahashi.

Earlier this week, the Japanese Olympic Committee and the City of Sapporo announced they were pausing their efforts to bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics and Paralympics as a result of damage done by the bribery scandal.