Japan Press Weekly

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2020 March 18 - 24 TOP3 [POLITICS]

Koike demands reinvestigation of the ‘Moritomo’ scandal

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira on March 23 at a House of Councilors Budget Committee meeting referred to a lawsuit recently filed by the wife of a former Finance Ministry official who killed himself after being forced to doctor official documents concerning the Moritomo scandal. Koike urged the government to investigate the matter.

Prior to the filing, the wife made public the notes which her husband kept before committing suicide in 2018. According to the notes, in 2017, the late Finance Ministry official was coerced to falsify the Moritomo-related documents under orders from the then Finance Ministry Financial Bureau chief, Sagawa Nobuhisa.

Koike pointed out that the alteration of the Moritomo documents was triggered by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s remark in a Diet meeting. He said, “Descriptions removed from the original documents were those that suggested the involvement of PM Abe’ wife, Akie, in the national land sale to the school corporation Moritomo Gakuen. The doctoring was done evidently in order to cover up the role the Abes played in the scandal.”

Koike pointed out that the notes state that Sagawa ordered the falsification, and requested a reinvestigation of the Moritomo issue and the summoning of Sagawa, Akie, and other key persons.

In the Upper House committee meeting, along with Koike, Dietmembers of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Social Democratic Party made the same request. In response, however, PM Abe turned his back on the demands made by these lawmakers.

Past related article:
> Abe still held responsible to explain fully about ‘Moritomo’ scandal [February 22, 2020]