Records of Moritomo land deal negotiations unveiled

January 23, 2018

Osaka- The Japanese Finance Ministry's Kinki Local Finance Bureau has stored documents of negotiations related to the controversial discount sale of a plot of state-owned land to school operator Moritomo Gakuen, it was learned Monday.

This was the first time that the bureau's written records of talks on the dubious land deal was disclosed.

The ministry had explained before the Diet, Japan's parliament, that negotiation records had been destroyed. A ministry official said that the documents were not of negotiations with the school operator but records of legal consultations within the bureau.

The papers were disclosed at the request of Hiroshi Kamiwaki, professor at Kobe Gakuin University.

They include records of inquiries and consultations between a bureau official in charge of the land talks and internal legal staff on responses to waste found under the ground of the land plot in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, where Moritomo planned to construct an elementary school. The documents, totaling 40 pages, were produced in March to May 2016.

According to a document dated March 24, the school operator proposed that the bureau solve the waste problem by reflecting what it claimed to be the high disposal costs in a discount on the appraisal land price.

The Moritomo side also warned that a delay in the opening of a planned school would cause a serious consequence and that if the proposal were rejected, the operator would need to scrap the school project and seek damages.

The bureau's land sale negotiator told the internal legal staff member that the disposal costs could be discounted from the appraisal land price if there were relevant references and asked what responsibility the bureau would bear legally.

The legal staff member responded that it would be preferable to make a decision on the proposal quickly in order to take measures to avoid possible damages claim.

Moritomo's assertions and negotiation details were included in almost all the documents.

In an April 22 document, Moritomo's proxy promised not to seek damages if the school operator succeeded in acquiring the land.

Moritomo planned to open the elementary school in April 2017. The land in question was sold to the school operator, which had been linked to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wife, Akie, for 134 million yen, at a discount of some 800 million yen to cover the alleged waste disposal costs. Jiji Press