The contractor carried out renovations for his own residence and the café of his wife, but the costs were included in the bill for the Osaka World Expo project. On October 29th, Tatsumi Kawai, a former head of the construction site at Japan’s Takahashi Construction Company, admitted during the first trial at the Osaka District Court that he had instructed subcontractors to inflate the project costs, causing losses to the company.
According to a report by the Asahi Shimbun, Hiroi, who is 61 years old, was the head of construction site management for the related projects of the World Expo. He has been dismissed from his company. Documents such as the indictment indicate that Hiroi allegedly conspired with the head of a subcontracting construction company in Nara Prefecture to inflate the costs of the temporary office construction related to the World Expo between February and June 2025, causing a loss of approximately 13.6 million yen (about 577,000 yuan) to the Kijō Kōgyosha.
He was also charged with falsely reporting expenses related to a "big roof dome" project, resulting in an additional lawsuit, involving estimated losses of approximately 6 million Japanese yen (approximately ¥255,000).
The prosecution stated during the trial that He Jing instructed subcontractors to inflate the bill for the World Expo project in order to have the company bear the costs of renovating his home and the coffee shop run by his wife. The total amount of these private renovation costs amounted to approximately 60 million yen (about 2.545 million RMB).
According to Kansai Television, the prosecution also submitted a statement of Hejing. During the investigation, he stated that after becoming the head of the scene, he "abused this power." The rest of the charges in the case are expected to be heard again on December 10.
