A former Japanese finance official yesterday denied that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe or his wife instructed bureaucrats to alter documents in a land scandal that has shaken the government, but left other key questions unanswered.
Nobuhisa Sagawa, who previously headed a Japanese Ministry of Finance department in charge of state property deals, apologized in legislative testimony over the document tampering, but repeatedly refused to answer lawmakers’ questions about whether he was aware of the changes or who ordered them.
Sagawa, who most recently served as head of the Japanese National Tax Agency, this month stepped down from the post over his handling of the case last year.
The scandal relates to the 2016 sale of state land to a right-wing school operator in Osaka at one-seventh of its appraised price. There are allegations that the deal involved Abe’s wife, Akie, who briefly served as honorary principal for a planned new elementary school.
A ministry investigation showed that one of the documents had originally stated that the school operator told officials that Akie encouraged him to proceed with the land deal, and several conservative lawmakers had contacted the ministry about the school plan, but it was not clear whether they violated any law.
It showed one document originally noted that the school operator was involved with a powerful pro-Abe political lobby, but that comment was later deleted.
Abe has apologized to the public over the document tampering, but repeatedly denied his or his wife’s involvement.
Last year, he said that he would step down if he or his wife were found to have influenced the deal.
The scandal has rattled Abe’s government, sending approval ratings plummeting and possibly risking his chances for a third term as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and a three-year extension of his time as Japanese prime minister.
Opposition lawmakers yesterday criticized Sagawa’s silence and also demanded that Abe’s wife and other people implicated in the land deal be the next to testify.
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