Court Orders Disclosure of Moritomo Documents

Osaka High Court found that it was illegal for Ministry of Finance (MOF) not to disclose information about fabrication of documents on disposition of governmental property to Moritomo Gakuen which had a connection with former prime minister Shinzo Abe and his wife. The court accused the ministry of not telling about even whether it possessed the related documents or not.

 

It was revealed in 2017 that MOF sold its own land property in Toyonaka city, Osaka, to an educational corporation, Moritomo Gakuen, in apparently lower price than market average. Although the leader of Moritomo, Yasunori Kagoike, stressed his close relationship with Abe in the negotiation with MOF, MOF deleted the name of Abe and his wife Akie from the official documents about disposition of the land to Moritomo. MOF punished former Director-General of Financial Bureau, Nobuhisa Sagawa, after it admitted the fabrication of the documents.

 

One of the staffs in charge of the fabrication in Kinki Financial Bureau, Toshio Akagi, killed himself with mental pressure of committing a crime in 2018. Akagi’s wife, Masako, demanded the documents of MOF, which was submitted to the public prosecutors office, to be disclosed to realize what was true reason of her husband’s death.

 

The documents, called Akagi File, are supposed to include detailed record on how the illegal fabrication was conducted. MOF refused disclosure, without telling whether the documents existed or not based on a provision of Information Disclosure Act. Masako filed a lawsuit against the government of Japan in 2021.

 

Osaka High Court decided that it was a basic principle that the public office needed to say whether the documents existed or not, even if it would not disclose them. The court regarded a provision for denial of answering about existence in Information Disclosure Act as an exceptional measure. It concluded that disclosure of requested documents would not affect investigation or trail, because the investigation had been finished at the time.

 

Although the first court, Osaka District Court, admitted possibility of destruction of evidence, if the documents would be released, Osaka High Court found that the disclosure would not damage investigation of the authority, denying any negative impact on future cases.

 

MOF ignored the report of a experts’ committee in the Ministry for Internal Affairs and Communications last March, which requested to disclose the documents, seeing no possible influence on investigation. MOF labeled the report as wrong. While the MOF is considering how to respond to the sentencing of Osaka High Court, it is doubted that the ministry is hiding secrets to protect interest of their organization.


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