Zeon Medical’s former president acquitted of bribery charges

Tokyo, Japan — A former president of a Japanese medical device company was acquitted Thursday of bribery charges in a case involving payments to a doctor at a leading cancer hospital.

The Tokyo District Court ruled that Noboru Yanagida, 69, former president of Zeon Medical Inc., did not commit the crime of offering bribes, even though the court found the company’s side intended the payments as such. Presiding Judge Masataka Nakagawa said the recipient doctor lacked the necessary intent to accept them as bribes.

Yanagida was accused of providing about 1.68 million yen (roughly $11,000) to a former chief of the hepatobiliary and pancreatic internal medicine department at the National Cancer Center Hospital East in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture. Prosecutors said the money, paid in 2021 under the guise of compensation for post-marketing studies on the company’s biliary stents, was intended to secure favorable treatment in the selection and use of Zeon Medical’s devices.

The court determined that Zeon Medical and Yanagida had sent the funds with the aim of influencing the doctor. However, because the doctor — who was separately acquitted in February on bribery charges — did not recognize the payments as bribes, the offense of bribery could not be established. Under Japanese law, bribery requires mutual recognition between giver and receiver in this context, making the offenses “necessary accomplices.”

Prosecutors had sought a one-year prison sentence for Yanagida. The doctor’s February acquittal became final after prosecutors did not appeal.

Yanagida was arrested in September 2023 and indicted the following month. Zeon Medical, a subsidiary of Zeon Corporation specializing in devices for cardiovascular and gastroenterological procedures, cooperated with authorities and conducted an internal investigation.

In a statement issued Thursday, Zeon Corporation noted the acquittal but acknowledged that Zeon Medical had previously received a stern warning from the Japan Fair Trade Council of the Medical Devices Industry in 2024. The company expressed regret for any inconvenience caused to customers, shareholders and stakeholders.

The case drew attention to practices in Japan’s medical device sector, where payments framed as research or consulting fees have sometimes blurred the line with improper inducements at public hospitals. Physicians at such institutions can be treated as public officials under bribery statutes.

No immediate comment was available from prosecutors on whether they would appeal Thursday’s ruling.