A former senior education ministry official was sentenced Wednesday to two years and six months in prison, suspended for five years, for accepting a favor from a private university in 2017 in return for helping it secure a government subsidy.The Tokyo District Court found Futoshi Sano, 62, former director general of the ministry's Science and Technology Policy Bureau, guilty of helping Tokyo Medical University secure the subsidy in exchange for a place at the institution for his son.Masahiko Usui, the former chairman of the university's Board of Regents, and Mamoru Suzuki, its former presid…READ FULL ARTICLE