Japan Press Weekly

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2018 March 7 - 13 [POLITICS]

Shii: Opposition parties will work together to disclose truth behind alleged falsification of official documents

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on March 8 at a press conference in the Diet building commented on an allegation that the Finance Ministry submitted to the Diet falsified documents concerning the scandal over a national land deal and said that if the allegation is found true, all the Cabinet members should resign.

The scandal involves the Osaka-based school corporation “Moritomo Gakuen”. In June 2016, the Finance Ministry’s local bureau in Osaka sold state-owned land to Moritomo at an extraordinarily huge discount. As the then president of the school corporation had close ties with Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s wife, Akie, it is suspected that the couple pressured the government bureau to provide special treatment for the school operator. Since the scandal was revealed, investigations are continuing in the Diet.

The Asahi Shimbun on March 2 reported that the Finance Ministry in February submitted to the Diet documents that the opposition parties demanded as part of their fact-finding efforts, but the documents were altered. According to Asahi, the ministry wrote up the documents when concluding its contract with Moritomo. Asahi said that when drawn up, the documents mentioned the provision of special treatment for Moritomo, but this was not included in the documents which the ministry presented to the Diet.

Shii at the press conference noted that the Mainichi Shimbun dated March 8 reported that it obtained other documents revealing the Finance Ministry’s special favor to Moritomo. He stressed that the falsification allegation has become quite credible with the emerging evidence of misconduct.

Shii said that together with other opposition parties, the JCP will work even harder to find out if Finance Ministry officials falsified the documents as well as who and how.

Past related article:
> Abe’s wife-associated school corporation gets national land at exceptionally low price [February 11, 2017]