Land ministry reported Moritomo documents to Prime Minister’s office on March 5

March 15, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's land ministry on March 5 informed the prime minister's office of the existence of unaltered original documents related to a massive discount sale of state-owned land to school operator Moritomo Gakuen, informed sources said Wednesday.

After the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun first reported about the document alterations on March 2, the ministry compared the original documents kept at its Civil Aviation Bureau and the papers that the Finance Ministry had disclosed to lawmakers after the controversial land deal came to light in February last year, the sources said.

Through the comparison, the ministry learned of differences in content between the two sets, which were supposed to be the same, the sources said.

The ministry informed the Finance Ministry's Financial Bureau of the differences on March 5 and provided it with copies of the documents.

The land ministry also notified the prime minister's office of the existence of the two sets of documents on March 5. The prime minister's office instructed the land ministry to cooperate with Finance Ministry investigations into the matter, the sources said.

On Thursday, the Finance Ministry submitted copies of the altered documents to parliament. The ministry finally admitted altering 14 documents on Monday.

At a parliamentary meeting Wednesday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he was briefed about the alterations on Sunday. Finance Minister Taro Aso has also said he had received a briefing on the matter on the same date.

Moritomo Gakuen was once linked to Abe's wife, Akie. Jiji Press