Opposition Parties Demand Aso Resign over Document Tampering

June 6, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's opposition parties on Tuesday demanded Finance Minister Taro Aso's resignation following the release of the results of probes into the alteration of documents related to a controversial discount sale of state land to a nationalist school operator.

Opposition parties will continue to call for testimony by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wife, Akie, who was once linked to the school operator, Moritomo Gakuen, and by then Financial Bureau chief Nobuhisa Sagawa, who oversaw the document manipulation.

At a meeting of the Financial Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, former Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Banri Kaieda of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan said that Aso should sincerely take responsibility for the scandal so the new minister can work to restore public trust.

"I hope to continue to make efforts to restore public trust," Aso said in reply.

Kaieda said that Aso did not show any leadership in throwing light on the scandal, suspecting that he may have encouraged the concealment of the truth.

Claiming that the Ministry of Finance's in-house probes failed to find out the whole truth, Kaieda called for third-party investigations.

Masato Imai, acting parliamentary affairs chief of the Democratic Party for the People, said the document tampering seems to have been organizationally conducted, taking into account that a total of 20 former and incumbent MOF officials were punished over the misconduct.

"The top official should take responsibility without sacrificing the weak to save himself," Seiji Mataichi, leader of the Social Democratic Party, said. "We demand Aso's resignation, as well as the resignation of the cabinet en masse." Jiji Press