Two Japanese employees of General Electric Co’s 75%-owned Yokogawa Medical Systems Ltd, which markets GE computerised tomography scanners, have been arrested on charges of bribing professors that decide whether university hospitals buy Japanese or American equipment; the Ministry of Education has ordered all universities – and includes attached hospitals, to halt all business transactions with Yokogawa Medical; according to the New York Times, insiders say such bribes are an unacknowledged common practice.
