Abe Demands Stricter Control of Public Documents

June 5, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructed his cabinet ministers on Tuesday to implement stricter management of public documents by raising government workers' awareness and overhauling the existing system.

"We'll make a full government effort to thoroughly conduct reviews needed to ensure appropriate management of public documents," Abe said at the beginning of a ministerial meeting on the handling of administrative documents.

The meeting, attended by all cabinet ministers, was held after a series of scandals including the tampering of Ministry of Finance documents on a controversial discount sale of state land to school operator Moritomo Gakuen and the disposal of related negotiation records.

The Cabinet Office will quickly carry out hearings with the MOF and the Defense Ministry to produce, probably within a month, measures to prevent a recurrence of the problems.

On Monday, the MOF submitted to parliament a report on the results of its in-house investigation of the document manipulation and punishments for 20 former and incumbent officials. Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso will voluntarily forgo a year's salary as a cabinet member.

The government is considering setting up a new bureau chief-level post in the Cabinet Office assigned with monitoring public document management at all government ministries and agencies, officials said. It may also add a clause on public document management to disciplinary guidelines of the National Personnel Authority, the officials said. Jiji Press