June 5, 2018

The Finance Ministry on June 4 released a report regarding its investigation into the alteration of official documents related to the national land sale to the “Moritomo Gakuen” school corporation at a giveaway price.

The report states that Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s remark in the Diet triggered the move to falsify documents containing the name of Abe’s wife, Akie. PM Abe in the February 2017 Diet meeting said that if he or his wife were found to be involved in the awarding of the huge discount to Moritomo, he would resign as the prime minister as well as a Dietmember.

The report also states that the then Finance Ministry’s Financial Bureau chief, Sagawa Nobuhisa, determined the direction to take for the doctoring of the Moritomo-related documents. The Finance Ministry imposed punishments on Sagawa and 19 other ministry officials.

Concerning Sagawa’s motive for the alteration, the investigation report points out that he feared that if the documents containing the names of Akie and other politicians concerned were made public, they would be used by opposition lawmakers to grill Sagawa in the Diet. The report asserts that the alteration took place based on Sagawa’s own judgement.

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira on the day commented on the investigation report at a press conference held in the Diet building. He said that the report states that after Abe made the resignation remark in the Diet, Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide was briefed by the Finance Ministry’s Financial Bureau about the national land sale to Moritomo.

Koike claimed that tracking what happened over a period of time, suspicions surfaced that the Prime Minister’s Office ordered the document falsification and stressed the need for further investigation. He demanded intensive Diet deliberations on the matter and the summoning of Akie, Sagawa, and other relevant persons as sworn witnesses to the Diet.

Past related articles:
> Release of Moritomo-related records corners PM Abe [May 24, 2018]
> Koike: Sagawa falls far short of providing answers regarding ‘Moritomo’ scandal [March 28, 2018]