Panel strictly reexamining labor survey flaws: Abe

January 31, 2019

Tokyo--Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday that a third-party special panel is now strictly reexamining the flawed labor survey that is at the center of the government's statistics scandal.

"I'm taking seriously criticism of the statistics irregularities and will make utmost efforts to prevent a recurrence of similar problems," Abe said at a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of parliament.

Abe was responding to Kazuya Shinba of the opposition Democratic Party for the People during a question-and-answer session after the prime minister's policy speech on Monday.

Shinba asked when the government will be able to complete payments to cover shortfalls in employment insurance and other benefits that have been caused by the flawed labor survey, which researches monthly employee wages and working hours.

Labor minister Takumi Nemoto told the Upper House that his ministry will take necessary measures in order to pay the shortfalls as quickly as possible to as many people as possible.

At a plenary meeting of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, later in the day, Abe said the payments will start in March.

During the Upper House meeting, Shinba asked why the labor ministry punished 22 officials in a hurry on Jan. 22 over the survey irregularities, which came to light last month, although full details of the scandal have yet to be uncovered.

Nemoto said that as the statistics law violation had been confirmed with available information, the ministry took the strict disciplinary action promptly.

In the wake of the scandal, the internal affairs ministry's Statistics Commission, which oversees government statistics, decided Wednesday to form a task force to review statistics survey methods comprehensively.

Based on the results of the review, the government will "take comprehensive measures to regain public trust" in statistics," Abe told the Upper House.

On the diplomatic front, Abe said Japan will closely work with the United States and South Korea toward a second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expected to take place late next month. Jiji Press