Abe refuses to dismiss labor min. over statistics debacle

January 29, 2019

Tokyo--Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday rejected a demand to dismiss labor minister Takumi Nemoto to hold him responsible for survey flaws at the labor ministry.

"We'll fulfill our political responsibility by doing our utmost to take preventive measures," Abe told a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of parliament.

"I want Nemoto to continue to do his best." Abe replied to Naoki Kazama of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, who demanded Nemoto's dismissal and Abe's resignation.

"The survey flaws have caused an unusual situation in which the cabinet had to make a decision all over again on what had been decided, and people's lives have been significantly affected," Kazama said.

The government "bears an extremely grave responsibility for this," he continued.

Abe claimed the achievements of Abenomics, his economic policy package, based on data from the problematic monthly labor survey, Kazama said, stressing that his claim "has turned out groundless."

The prime minister replied that he has never cited only nominal wage growth figures in 2018, revised down through recalculations due to the survey data flaws, to claim his achievements.

Nemoto expressed a wish to fulfill his responsibility by working hard to regain trust in government statistics and pay compensation for underpaid employment insurance benefits caused by the survey flaws. Jiji Press