Abe denies ordering land sale document manipulation

March 14, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denied Wednesday that he has ordered the manipulation of Ministry of Finance documents related to a massive discount sale of a state-owned land plot to school operator Moritomo Gakuen.

Abe also quoted his wife, Akie, as saying that she has not made remarks shown in the original version of the documents.

According to the original documents, MOF officials were told by Yasunori Kagoike, then head of the private education group, that Akie Abe had praised the land plot in western Japan, where Moritomo Gakuen planned to open an elementary school, and encouraged the group to go ahead with the school plan.

"I confirmed with my wife. She said she didn't say such a thing," the prime minister said at a House of Councillors Budget Committee meeting.

The altered version of one of the documents does not include the cited remarks of Akie Abe.

Abe reiterated his denial of any involvement of him, his wife or his office staff in the controversial land sale or the process of approving the Moritomo school plan. "It's obvious from the original documents," he stressed.

The opposition camp is demanding sworn testimony in parliament by the prime minister's wife, as well as by Nobuhisa Sagawa, a key former MOF official in the favoritism scandal over Moritomo Gakuen.

The opposition is also demanding Finance Minister Taro Aso, who doubles as deputy prime minister, to resign to take responsibility for the MOF document falsification, which the ministry admitted earlier this week.

During the Upper House committee meeting, which the opposition camp boycotted, Aso denied that he has issued an instruction for the document manipulation and once again suggested that he will not step down over the matter. "I'll do all I can to fulfill my accountability to parliament."

Aso said the document manipulation by ministry personnel was aimed mainly at preventing differences between the content of the documents and what Sagawa said in parliament in answering lawmaker questions. The bureaucrats did not act by surmising the unspoken wishes of officials in higher offices, he said. Jiji Press