Abe refuses to dismiss labor minister amid labor data scandal

You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

In any other truly democratic country, this would be grounds for impeachment. The world keeps on spinnin

So the minister who lied about government statistics is given a free pass buy the beneficiary of said lies. And that's not a problem? What a bizarre twist democracy in Japan has taken.

Today's Asahi Shimbun writes: "Opposition party lawmakers used the labor statistics scandal to hammer away at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s vaunted economic policies, with some saying the numbers were fudged simply to make Abenomics look good."

If this is the case, then the current scandal would be even worse than it appears. If the accusation is indeed true (and mark that this is yet to be determined) then not only should Nemoto resign but Abe as well.

What we now know for certain is bad enough. Nemoto must go.

What I fear most now is the hardening of hearts here in once docile Japan. Something’s biting them and I want to understand who or what. Until they get their new constitution, make nuclear weapons, and hurt someone they won’t let up. Then, WWII revisited.

"In any other truly democratic country, this would be grounds for impeachment. The world keeps on spinnin"

If that the case, why hasn't Trump, Macron and Moon been impeached yet????????

"Nemoto must go."

Why must he go? As the article stated:...."but in Tokyo it had only surveyed a third of the roughly 1,400 such businesses since 2004."

Nemoto discovered the problem and is cleaning it up. He deserved respect because he is not kicking the can down the street.

There are two interesting points about this story:

First, as the article states: "the labor ministry is required to gather results from all businesses in the country with 500 or more employees". If you know anything about stats, this means that Japanese government was aiming for 100% accuracy in their stats, no variance from the population. No government does that

Second as the article also states: "After correcting the labor survey data, monthly average cash earnings per person were raised by up to 1.2 percentage points. This means that Japanese were making more money than previous reported." It is interesting that opposition is not talking about this.

Nemoto discovered the problem and is cleaning it up.

About that...

Mainichi:

Speaking during a plenary session of the House of Representatives, Edano pointed out that Nemoto knew about the ministry's improper collection of data in its Monthly Labor Survey on Dec. 20 last year, but went ahead and took part in the Cabinet's approval of the budget draft for fiscal 2019 the following day. The scandal forced the budget draft to be revised and reapproved by the Cabinet to make up for tens of billions of yen in unpaid work-related benefits stemming from the flawed data

So, let me get this straight! This fraud involved over 20 million people being underpaid and as a result, produced fake statistics which the government used to promote its success in both economics and unemployment. And now, those who received recognition for the fraudulent success have decided against any punishment for those responsible for the fraud. You have to be pooping me! I think Japan is very lucky to have the Yakuza. They take the focus off the criminals running this country.

Thus the power of corruption in Japan. The more it is expose the quicker interest in it trickles off.

Well, abe , pls stay in the same ship & sink.

A third-party investigative committee of lawyers and statistics experts appointed by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare concluded last week said that there was no definitive evidence that the incident was caused by a systematic coverup by the ministry.

But the ministry has decided to redo the investigation after it was found that ministry officials were involved in the probe even though it was supposed to be investigation by a third party.

Around 70 percent of the 37 officials had been interviewed by ministry staff during the investigation. Top ministry bureaucrats, including assistant vice minister Akira Miyakawa and deputy vice minister Yumiko Jozuka, were present at some of the interview

? Lost in translation? Party A (the ministry) ask party b do investigation, but party a interfered with investigation so party a is going to do the investigation again?

So many scandals since Abe came to power - yet still no heads to roll, just apologies, bowing and we will try harder.

The mess in Japan for the ordinary people is the result of sustained corrupt practices by the ldp over decades.

And sadly many of the electorate believe these are the good guys and all others lack competence.

I always thought a broken record would eventually stop, but J. Inc has proven otherwise.