Japan Accuses Ad Giant Dentsu of Rigging Bids for Tokyo Olympics

In a statement on its website Tuesday, Dentsu said that it “takes this situation seriously and offers its sincere apologies to its business partners, shareholders and all other relevant parties for any inconvenience or concern this may cause.” It said it had established a committee to investigate the company’s conduct and asked some senior executives to return part of their compensation.

Even before the Tokyo Olympics began, concerns about wrongdoing had surfaced. In 2016, French authorities said they had uncovered millions of dollars of payments made by Tokyo’s Olympic organizing committee to a Singaporean firm in an effort to secure the winning bid to host the Games. The scandal led the head of the national Olympic committee, Tsunekazu Takeda, to resign. Mr. Takeda has denied any wrongdoing.

In the years since, additional corruption allegations have tainted the reputations of some of Japan’s most prominent companies.

In August, prosecutors arrested top executives from the publishing giant Kadokawa and the business clothing retailer Aoki Holdings on bribery charges. A former Dentsu executive, Haruyuki Takahashi, who served on the executive board of the committee charged with organizing the Tokyo Games, was also arrested. He has denied the charges against him.

In December, Aoki Holdings’ founder, Hironori Aoki, pleaded guilty to giving around $205,000 to Mr. Takahashi. In a court appearance this month, the ex-president of the Japanese marketing company ADK admitted to paying Mr. Takahashi over $100,000 as his company sought marketing opportunities linked to the Games.

In response to reporters’ questions about Tuesday’s charges, Japan’s top government spokesman, Hirokazu Matsuno, said they showed “contempt for the value of sports.”