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LEAD: Skating: Scandal causes 8 JSF officials to step down+
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, April 25_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: UPDATING)
Eight members of the Japan Skating Federation executive committee will resign at the end of June over their alleged involvement in questionable business operations, federation officials said Tuesday.
The JSF admitted the handling of its operations for staging international figure skating meets was inappropriate and decided to have the eight leave their posts at an executive committee meeting held earlier in the day.
The eight executive committee members include acting president Mitsuzo Fujimori and Noriko Shirota, who is known for developing the talent of Olympic gold medalist Shizuka Arakawa in her junior years.
Sources familiar with the situation said former speed skater Seiko Hashimoto, a bronze medalist at the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics and a member of the House of Councillors, has been shortlisted for the president's job after the drastic reshuffle takes effect at the end of the current fiscal term in June.
The move came a month after the revelation that the JSF incurred a loss of about 100 million yen in its department in charge of international business operations when Katsuichiro Hisanaga served as the federation's president.
During Hisanaga's tenure, the JSF spent roughly 2.1 billion yen on international business operations alone in the three years through June 2003, significantly hurting its financial health.
Skating sources said Hisanaga is suspected of having embezzled federation money related to the running of figure skating events.
The sources said the suspicion surfaced after the discovery that about 9 million yen was temporarily withdrawn in 2003 from the bank account of the organizing committee for the NHK Trophy, which was under the control of Hisanaga.
Hisanaga quit his post in June 2004 citing health reasons.
However, a source familiar with the move said Hisanaga was forced to step down under pressure from other ranking JSF officials, who demanded he leave but promised to make up for the loss he caused to the federation behind the scenes.
The JSF investigated the matter since it surfaced weeks after Shizuka Arakawa became the first Japanese figure skater to win an Olympic gold medal in Turin. On Tuesday, the federation submitted a report on its investigations to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
The NHK Trophy is part of the International Skating Union's Grand Prix series and one of the most prestigious international competitions held in Japan. It is jointly sponsored by the JSF and Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK), which pays 10 million yen every year to the organizing committee to help prepare the annual event.
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