Keiichi Tsuruoka

Keiichi Tsuruoka (Japanese鹤 冈 启 一, Keiichi Tsuruoka; born May 18, 1940 in Chiba, Chiba Prefecture) is a Japanese politician and served from July 2001 to May 2009 mayor of Chiba. On 22 April 2009 he was arrested under suspicion of corruption.

Tsuruoka studied law at the University of Tokyo and officer was then in the Ministry of Interior. From 1989 he was sent to the authority for state land. From 1990, he worked on the board of the operating company of Tōkyō -wan- Aqua -Line, from 1994 in the Municipality of Chiba. As Mayor Matsui Asahi withdrew in 2001, Tsuruoka candidate with the support of the LDP, Kōmeitō and Conservative party for his successor. He won with 36% of votes cast. He was re-elected for a second term in 2005. In December 2008, he announced, not to stand in the mayoral election on June 14, 2009.

In April 2009, Tsuruoka was arrested as part of corruption investigation by the police of Tokyo Prefecture. The construction company Azuma Kígyó based in Kōtō to him for preferential consideration in the award of a road construction job one million yen have paid ( around 8,000 euros ) in return. Tsuruoka is the first arrested the mayor of the Japanese city since 1993, when the Mayor of Sendai was indicted in a Zenekon scandal. 1st May 2009 Tsuruoka resigned from the mayor's office. On 13 May 2009 charges were formally brought against him.