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 existence of the documents. Regretting the situation of the wife, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba ordered the ministry not to appeal to the Supreme Court and instructed to disclose related documents after decision of the high court.

 

The wife requested disclosure of 170,000 pages of copy and tens of thousands of emails exchanged among the staffs of the ministry. The MOF disclosed records between June 2013 when Moritomo began to move for purchasing the land formerly owned by the national government and June 2016 when the MOF and Moritomo reached a deal of trade. They include emails between the staffs of MOF that indicate how the staffs treated the issue.

 

One question on this issue is why the MOF allowed the sales at very low price. Although the price of land was estimated as 956 million yen, it was sold 134 million yen from the MOF to Moritomo. Moritomo claimed that a lot of debris were found underground. However, this 86 percent of discount was so unrealistic that Abe was doubted to be involved in.

 

Some conversations about the discount were found in the documents disclosed. There was a description that “It is highly possible that Gekuen will file a lawsuit seeking compensation,” or “We hope to settle this issue by selling the land as soon as possible.” While the owner of Moritomo indicated involvement of Akie in the process of land sales, there was no description indicating it in the disclosed documents.

 

Abe said in 2017 he would step down, if he or his wife had been involved in the sales. After that the MOF headquarters instructed its local branch in Osaka to erase all the evidence that indicated involvement of politicians from official documents. In the office of Osaka, Akagi was forced to make false descriptions. This is the first attempt to disclose all the documents. Masako expected that complete disclosure leads to reveal the truth of organized fabrication of public documents by Ministry of Finance.