Abe defends appointment of official linked to shady land sale

December 5, 2017

Tokyo- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday defended his administration's appointment as head of the National Tax Agency of an official involved in the shady discount sale of state-owned land to nationalist school operator Moritomo Gakuen.

The official, Nobuhisa Sagawa, then chief of the Finance Ministry's Financial Bureau, explained the 2016 land sale as "appropriate" before parliament, but the Board of Audit of Japan found late last month that the huge discount lacked sound reasoning.

At a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors on Monday, Shoji Nanba of the opposition Democratic Party claimed that the offer of the top tax agency post to Sagawa was totally unacceptable from a taxpayer's perspective.

But Abe insisted that the government made the appointment "in line with our policy of placing the best person in each post," while noting that the government takes the auditing report seriously.

Elsewhere at the Upper House meeting, Abe said the government will focus on "truly necessary" measures, including for human resources development and productivity improvement, in drawing up its fiscal 2018 budget.

The prime minister also said the government plans to submit a bill to address plots of land with unclear ownership, during next year's ordinary session of parliament.

Over a US helicopter crash in Okinawa Prefecture in October, Abe said his administration will continue to demand that the United States take measures to prevent similar incidents. "Flight safety is a major precondition for US military presence in our country," he said. Jiji Press