Japan PM apologizes to LDP reg’l leaders over document scandal

March 25, 2018

Tokyo- Liberal Democratic Party President Shinzo Abe on Saturday apologized to LDP senior regional members over the manipulation of Ministry of Finance documents related to state-owned land sold to school operator Moritomo Gakuen.

"I deeply feel responsible for the situation shaking public trust in the government," Abe, the prime minister, said in a speech at a meeting of the ruling party, vowing to shed full light on the document tampering and revamp the government's organization.

The meeting, attended by senior members of the LDP's prefectural chapters across the country, took place in Tokyo ahead of the party's annual convention on Sunday.

The participants were briefed about a campaign policy to be adopted at the party convention.

Regional representatives requested sincere responses to the document scandal by the government and the LDP leadership. A Nagano chapter official said it would be difficult to move on to the constitutional revision issue unless accountability is fulfilled over the scandal.

At a separate meeting earlier on Saturday, Hiroyuki Hosoda, head of the LDP's Headquarters for the Promotion of Revision of the Constitution, presented to the local members a rough draft of constitutional revisions.

Hosoda said the preliminary draft will be reviewed by related experts and presented to the Commission on the Constitution of each chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament.

It is "our task since the party's launch" to rewrite the post-World War II constitution, Abe stressed in the speech. "It's important for the party to unite to tackle the issue."

"We should continue discussions to draw up a proposal" on constitutional amendment that would be put to a national referendum, he said.

Meanwhile, Abe said the government will do all it can to make progress in efforts to resolve the issue of North Korea's abductions of Japanese citizens, as well as its nuclear and missile development, at a time when North Korea is set to hold a summit with the South in late April and expected to hold one with the United States in May.

"North Korea has asked for talks, as a result of our response with dogged determination," Abe stressed. "Japan has been leading the international community" in pressuring North Korea to abandon the nuclear and missile programs. Jiji Press