Ex-MOF official to give testimony on Moritomo scandal on March 27

March 20, 2018

Tokyo- Former Ministry of Finance official Nobuhisa Sagawa, a key figure in the Moritomo Gakuen favoritism scandal, is set to be summoned to give sworn testimony before the Diet on March 27, it was learned on Tuesday.

The ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito found it inevitable to accept an opposition demand to summon Sagawa as a sworn witness, considering strong public criticism of the government over the scandal.

On Tuesday, the LDP told the opposition Democratic Party of a plan to hear Sagawa's testimony in the Budget Committee of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, on the morning of March 27 and the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, in the afternoon.

Later on Tuesday, the Upper House committee voted to summon Sagawa that day. The Lower House committee is expected to approve the schedule on Thursday.

Sagawa was director-general of the ministry's Financial Bureau when officials at the bureau manipulated related documents after a huge discount sale of state-owned land to private school operator Moritomo Gakuen came to light in February 2017.

Focal points in his testimony include why the MOF documents were falsified and whether there was pressure from politicians behind the document tampering.

The original documents contained the names of Akie Abe, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wife, and LDP politicians. She was once appointed as honorary principal of a planned Moritomo elementary school in the land plot in question.

At a meeting with Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi on Tuesday, Abe, also president of the LDP, vowed that the government will respond to the Moritomo issue in good faith to regain public trust.

In addition to Sagawa's testimony, the opposition camp is demanding parliamentary testimony by Akie Abe.

The LDP and Komeito agreed at a meeting of their secretaries-general and Diet affairs chiefs that she has nothing to do with the MOF document falsification and therefore needs not to face a parliamentary hearing.

The ruling bloc also decided to reject opposition requests to summon Saeko Tani, who assisted the prime minister's wife as a government official, and former MOF Financial Bureau chief Hidenori Sakota, who was at the post when the ministry engaged in negotiations with Moritomo. Jiji Press