MOF Discloses Moritomo Documents
Ministry of Finance (MOF) disclosed 2,200 pages of documents which were internal records in the ministry related to fabrication of official records about discounted sales of government-owned land for Moritomo Gakuen, which allegedly had a close relationship with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie. Although the documents did not include crucial part of the fabrication, the wife of former MOF staff, Toshio Akagi, who had been involved in the fabrication and killed himself with regret of his involvement in fabrication, expected further disclosure to realize the reason why her husband had to commit a suicide. To the request of the wife, Masako Akagi, for disclosure of related documents, Osaka High Court dismissed in February a decision of Osaka District Court that approved refusal of disclosure. While the ministry did not make clear whether the documents were in the ministry or not, the high court found it illegal for the ministry not to tell even about the exi...