Possible paper tampering reported to Abe on March 6

March 16, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe received a report about possible alterations to Ministry of Finance documents related to a Moritomo Gakuen land deal on March 6, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Thursday.

On March 6, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kazuhiro Sugita told Abe and Suga that the land ministry reported to Sugita on March 5 that it kept the possibly original version of some MOF documents linked to Moritomo, according to Suga.

Explaining why he did not immediately disclose the information, Suga told a press conference that it had not been confirmed yet whether the documents held by the land ministry were the original version.

The MOF submitted copies of altered Moritomo documents to parliament on March 8. Four days later, the ministry announced that it had tampered with the documents, linked to a state-held land plot sold at a huge discount to Moritomo.

Abe has told parliament that he was notified of document alterations on Sunday, the day before the ministry's announcement.

Suga indicated on Thursday that he received a report on the confirmed document alterations on Sunday, as did Abe and Finance Minister Taro Aso.

Meanwhile, the Board of Audit of Japan admitted that it had been aware of the existence of two versions of the Moritomo documents, at an executive meeting of the House of Councillors Budget Committee on Thursday.

The audit board apologized for failing to report the existence of the different versions promptly, while stressing that the irregularity did not affect its auditing process. Jiji Press