Overview

• Senior officials visited Shizuo Aishima’s gravesite in Yokohama to apologize in person, with his wife saying she accepted the apology but would never forgive.
• The gesture followed a Metropolitan Police report released earlier in August that found investigative dysfunction in the chain of command led to the wrongful arrests.
• Aishima, 72, was arrested and indicted in 2020 over alleged unauthorized spray-dryer exports and died in 2021 after eight denied bail requests.
• Prosecutors withdrew indictments for company president Masaaki Okawara and former director Junji Shimada in July 2021, citing doubts about their guilt.
• In May, the Tokyo High Court ruled the arrests and indictments illegal and ordered the state and the metropolitan government to pay 166 million yen in damages.