Japanese Minister of Finance Taro Aso will not attend the G20 finance leaders’ meeting in Buenos Aires next week due to legislative wrangling over altered documents in a suspected favoritism scandal, a ruling party source told reporters.
Aso is instead to attend a debate in the Japanese National Diet on Monday about the scandal involving the controversial sale of public land to a school operator with ties to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s wife.
Aso has come under fire since the Japanese Ministry of Finance’s admission this week that it had altered records involved in the heavily discounted sale of land to school operator Moritomo Gakuen.
Photo: Reuters
References to Abe, his wife, Akie Abe, and Aso were removed from the ministry’s records of the sale, copies of documents released by the ministry showed.
Abe, who is hoping to win a third term as party leader later this year, has remained steadfast that he and the first lady were not involved in the land sale.
Suspicion of a cover-up could slash Abe’s ratings and undermine his chances in the Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership vote in September. If successful, he would become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister.
Officials told reporters earlier this week that Aso was considering skipping the G20 meeting amid the fallout from the scandal, which has paralyzed legislative proceedings and has opposition leaders calling for Aso’s resignation.
Aso has rejected calls to resign and said responsibility for the land sale lays with Nobuhisa Sagawa, who stepped down as tax chief on Friday last week.
Sagawa headed the ministry division that submitted the documents before he became commissioner of the Japanese National Tax Agency in July last year.
The Asahi Shimbun yesterday reported that the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism on Monday last week told the prime minister’s office and the finance ministry that it had the unaltered documents — three days before the finance ministry presented to the legislature what it said were copies of the original documents.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga yesterday told a news conference that a deputy chief Cabinet secretary on Monday learned that there was “a possibility” that some of the original documents existed, and that he directed the transportation ministry to cooperate with investigations.
Suga said he was told about the possibility that some of the original documents existed the next day.
The scandal has already caused a stalemate in the legislature, with opposition parties threatening to boycott debate on the budget.
The logjam could also leave two Bank of Japan deputy governor posts vacant when the incumbents’ terms end next week, as the appointments need lawmakers’ approval.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not