Questioning of ex-tax chief over Moritomo papers seen inevitable

March 13, 2018

Osaka- The Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office's special squad believes that it is inevitable to question former National Tax Agency chief Nobuhisa Sagawa in order to investigate the possibility of the tampering of documents related to the sale of a state land plot to private school operator Moritomo Gakuen constituting a crime, informed sources have said.

The special unit plans to carefully investigate the matter, according to the sources.

On Monday, the Japanese government admitted in a report to the Diet, the country's parliament, that documents related to the sale of the land in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, to Moritomo at a deep discount were altered after the controversial deal came to light in mid-February 2017.

For example, descriptions characterizing the land deal as a "special case" and referring to "talks on price and other issues" were deleted. Previously, the government denied holding any price negotiations with the Moritomo side on the land.

Moritomo acquired the land in June 2016 for 134 million yen, with a discount of some 800 million yen for what the Ministry of Finance side has claimed was the cost of removing buried waste from the site.

Sagawa served as director-general of the ministry's Financial Bureau from June 2016 to July 2017.

While in office as the chief of the bureau, he repeatedly said at parliamentary meetings that records on negotiations with Moritomo were discarded and called the land deal "appropriate."

The documents in question were altered in order to put them in line with Sagawa's remarks, Minister of Finance Taro Aso said on Monday.

Sagawa resigned as commissioner of the tax agency on Friday to take the blame for "confusion" in the Diet over the Moritomo issue

An administrative personnel who has altered official documents could be charged with producing false documents if he or she has authority to create official papers and with document forgery or tampering if the person does not have the authority. Jiji Press