Prosecutors question another ex-MOF bureau chief on Moritomo issue

May 3, 2018

Osaka- Public prosecutors have questioned former Ministry of Finance bureau chief Hidenori Sakota on a voluntary basis about the controversial state land sale to private school operator Moritomo Gakuen, informed sources said Wednesday.

The Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office has already questioned Sakota's successor, Nobuhisa Sagawa, over the ministry's manipulation of documents related to the land deal, under which a state-owned land plot in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, was sold to the group for 130 billion yen, at a discount of some 800 million yen, in June 2016.

The discount was made on the grounds that costs to dispose of waste found under the land plot should be deducted from the appraisal value. But it has already come to light that, among others, the MOF's Kinki Local Finance Bureau officials in charge of the negotiations requested the Moritomo Gakuen side to tell a lie about the amount of waste to justify the discount.

Sakota was director-general of the MOF's Financial Bureau when the negotiations on the land plot, where Moritomo Gakuen planned to open an elementary school, were under way.

The Osaka prosecutors office has received a criminal complaint from a group of lawyers, university professors and others seeking breach of trust charges against ministry officials related to the land deal.

The prosecutors are believed to have asked Sakota why the land price was so heavily discounted.

Opposition lawmakers suspect a link between the shady land deal and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wife, Akie, who was once appointed honorary principal of the planned school.

In March last year, Sakota, then commissioner of the National Tax Agency, told a parliamentary committee meeting that there were no inquiries from politicians, or their secretaries, about the land negotiations, leaving the ministry side unable to make any political consideration. Jiji Press