Chieru's Okinawa unit tipped bid prices to rivals — the parent's CEO took it over

OKIDIM, an office-equipment seller in Urasoe, Okinawa, competed for contracts from Okinawa municipal governments. An April 2026 anonymous whistleblower report to parent Chieru (3933, TSE Standard) suggested bid-rigging and other legal violations. An outside special investigation committee was set up on June 3 — so late in the fiscal year that Chieru's 29th annual general meeting had to be postponed and reopened as a continuation meeting. Using document review, digital forensics and interviews, the committee confirmed two practices.

First, before municipal equipment tenders, OKIDIM sales staff handed rivals documents titled 'estimate sheets' — possibly 'unreasonable restraint of trade' under Antimonopoly Act Article 2(6). Second, for municipal system-integration tenders, staff verbally passed reference prices to competitors in advance. A hotline survey of every group subsidiary found no other concrete violations. The committee blamed person-dependent deal handling, no written bid rules, no in-house legal desk and low risk sensitivity at OKIDIM — while the parent's subsidiary office had never audited the unit.

Chieru's board resolved corrective measures on August 19: antimonopoly conduct rules across the group, training before the reopened AGM, monthly compliance reporting and quarterly liaison meetings, electronic approval workflows so decisions leave records, and a governance rebuild at OKIDIM. At an extraordinary shareholders' meeting on August 31, all four OKIDIM directors and its auditor resigned; Chieru's own president, Mutsumi Kawai, became OKIDIM's representative director, joined by other parent executives and an outside lawyer.

All eight Chieru directors forfeited 100% of FY2027 stock pay; the AGM reopened as a continuation; OKIDIM's board was replaced. Financial impact was deemed minor.

Tender conduct was person-dependent with no written rules, so whether contacting rivals before a bid was acceptable depended on each salesperson's judgment.

OKIDIM had no legal or compliance consultation window, leaving staff nowhere to check that handing competitors estimate sheets was unlawful.

The parent's subsidiary-management office did not audit group companies, so OKIDIM management's low risk sensitivity went unchallenged for years.

In a small regional market, pre-bid price sharing turns competitors into choreography partners; the practices matched the Antimonopoly Act's definition of unreasonable restraint of trade.

A subsidiary's sales culture is the parent's liability. Where tender conduct is left to each salesperson's judgment, 'we always do it this way' becomes an antitrust case with the parent's name on it.

Chieru said the affair would have only a minor effect on its FY2027/3 results, but the governance bill was real: every director, including the three audit members, forfeited 100% of FY2027 stock compensation, and the AGM stayed open until the investigation closed. The new OKIDIM board — the parent's CEO and two parent executives plus a lawyer — must report progress to both boards annually, with internal audits now sampling bid files. The 6-point plan also mandates antimonopoly training every year and written pledges from all staff, with violations grounds for dismissal.