Finance ministry proposed cover story on land sale at heart of scandal: official

Apologies for lies to the electorate and wasting taxpayers’ money on covering up the lies.In any normal job that would be a sacking or a court trial, no?

Why is this still being circulated, state itself admitted it is indulging in organized crime. Just wait for the militarists and corruptionees to face justice.

And wait for it in three, two, one," PM Abe states that he will fight for the abductees when he meets with President Trump in his visit to the US! I will do everything I can to bring back our people from North Korea, stated a stern faced Abe!"

It has always worked for him before whenever the heat begins to rise, I can't see why he won't try it again as this scandal just keeps on growing.

No replacement of Abe. We need a strong bad guy to overpower strong bad guys surrounding us. Abe is indispensable.

Usually the cover up is worse than the crime. To be honest I do nto care if the guy got a sweet land deal, but I do care how much they tried to cover it up.

That being said, who would you rather see at PM if Abe is gone? Aso? Nikai? Suga? Wow not many good choices

Ota said, adding that the attempt to cook up a story was "highly embarrassing".

Right, it's only embarrassing NOW, because you got caught. Otherwise, if no one found out, no one would be embarrassed and it would be business as usual.

At the minimum Aso should be stepping down as Finance Minister and Vice PM to take responsibility for leading a ministry that felt comfortable enough to concoct a story like this!

Dango bongToday  07:17 am JST

That being said, who would you rather see at PM if Abe is gone? Aso? Nikai? Suga? Wow not many good choices

Not the best of examples either as none of them are being talked about in connection with the next LDP leadership race. It looks like if anyone replaces Abe it will be Shigeru Ishiba, Seiko Noda or Shinjiro Koizumi. Anyway, I would prefer just about anyone in the LDP to Abe, as bad as the rest of them may be.

What a shame govt. Apologize, apologize, apologize is nothing for Abe.

SchopenhauerToday  07:07 am JST

No replacement of Abe.

Not up to you. The LDP will decide.

We need a strong bad guy ...

Abe's a bad guy then? You think he's been involved in this scandal?

to overpower strong bad guys surrounding us.

I see nothing at all to indicate that Abe is up to the task. Winning push-over elections seems to be about all he's capable of.

shizo lied, his wife lied the beauracracts lied all because Nippon Kaigi wanted to open a school based on 1930 circulation. Base fail

Despite the denials of the issue, all know that PM and his wife used their influences on the matter. But they are not thinking necessarily they have to replace Abe for it. It is a "sontaku" affair which is traditional here. Some say without "sontaku," the world does not go around in Japan. Abe did not stole huge amount of government money and stored it in foreign banks which happen often in foreign countries. It was done by bureaucrats practicing "sontaku" ingratiating themselves to the prime minister and maybe to Aso.

So there wasn't even rubbish to remove that was all a lie? Do the lies never end? Clearly Abe's wife had everything to do with this.

Cover story that's surly a factual rudimentary denial of facts LIERE LIERE PANTS ON FIRE

When "strong bad guys" "take back control" catastrophe always follows close on their heels, or so history teaches. Poker-faced "Dishonest Abe" is desperately attempting to stand aloof, above the sordid fray, but what about all those "criminal conspiracy" laws he bulldozed through the Diet? Do the PM, Aso and their ilk stand above these very laws they framed to expand their power, or will they be hoist by their own petard? It's high time for the Japanese people to look up from their phones, smell the rancid coffee and throw the bums out!

What I want to know is why NO ONE is even talking about what the 800+ million in yen was going to be used for & for WHOM!!

Clearly this whole scam was to provide a cheap brainwashing centre & to boost producers who male brown paper envelopes!! Now who was going to receive these stuffed envelopes, THAT is also a very important question in all this, one that NO ONE is asking about!!!

Did not that school sell the land afterwards for the real going price? I thought I read that but cannot find a link. Anyone else?

GW

Kagoike of Moritomo did not have enough money to open a school the regulation requires and needed to lower the cost to build the school. They even gave a favor that Kagoike pays the money required to buy land and open a school on 10 year installment. So the money is not going into anybody's pocket.

Clearly this whole scam was to provide a cheap brainwashing centre 

GW - Hard nationalists have always been into brainwashing through education. My guess is that this school was part of a long-term project. It would have been well funded and every effort would have been made to ensure that it was a success so it could be used to justify the adoption of more nationalistic education nationwide. Good thing that the process has been stopped for now.

Time for Aso to deny everything while stating his intentions to run for PM again -- remember that crime is paramount when being elected here; and Abe to suddenly visit the families of abductees again and vow for the 15th time to resolve the issue if elected again.

Kagoike of Moritomo did not have enough money to open a school the regulation requires and needed to lower the cost to build the school. They even gave a favor that Kagoike pays the money required to buy land and open a school on 10 year installment. So the money is not going into anybody's pocket.

Schopenhauer,

You CANT seriously believe that!! The LDP has been doing EXACTLY this ever since its inception  in the 50s! That is pilfering the countries taxes etc & feeding it to certain connected companies etc all the while LOTS of brown envelopes handed out at each stage!

Abe is involved. He said he would resign if he was involved and he is.

Is he going to resign?

Or is this yet another broken promise?

So abe will resign/retire in September with with his rich wife and continue to travel around the world, and Aso will go to prison? Please explain someone.

@simon. Please research about Ishiba.

All commentators here might have come from very strict moral countries and they must be surprised about the low morality of Japanese society. I say sorry to you.

Schopenhauer - you don't need to apologise on behalf of Japan!

My country (Britain) has its fair share of corruption, which has been rising with the ever closer links between government, big business and the media, and I'd probably be making similar comments on websites in Britain if I lived there. However, I live in Japan, pay taxes here, and have two children growing up here (which is why the prospect of nationalistic education is deeply disturbing to me), which is why I'm criticising. I imagine that most other posters are in similar positions and few are Japan bashing for the sake of it.

GWToday 10:22 am JST

"Kagoike of Moritomo did not have enough money to open a school the regulation requires and needed to lower the cost to build the school. They even gave a favor that Kagoike pays the money required to buy land and open a school on 10 year installment. So the money is not going into anybody's pocket."

Schopenhauer,

You CANT seriously believe that!! The LDP has been doing EXACTLY this ever since its inception in the 50s! That is pilfering the countries taxes etc & feeding it to certain connected companies etc all the while LOTS of brown envelopes handed out at each stage!

I would usually agree as that's the way the LDP usually operates but in this case Nippon Kaigi are involved and everyone knows how deeply into their ideology Shinzo Abe is. I have an inkling that getting this ultranationalist indoctrination centre open and furthering the Nippon Kaigi agenda was actually more important to him and Kagoike than getting rich from it.

Interesting photo. That's a professionally printed sign. I would not be at all surprised if she was being paid by the DPJ and they had commissioned these signs to be made.

Japan does not need to worry about the Yakuza when they have politicians like this running the country. Here's a short list of criminals from recent years, Abe, Aso, Hatoyama, Ishihara and Hashimoto, just to name a few. These criminals were all named in different fraud and cronyism scandals, but never convicted. Ah, Japan, the land of honesty , integrity and 'omotenashi'. What a load of BS! It's the land of fraud, cronyism and straight up lies!

I want to know who in the finance ministry made the phone call, and why. Let's have his name and arrest him for corruption. Somebody has to be punished for this, but Abe is preventing anyone from being arrested.

Scrote, too late. The man probably died already.

cucashopboy

I watch BBC TV and find their members of parliament are sitting on simple green benches side by side. I was kind impressed by it. At the Japanese parliament, they are given individual gorgeous chairs. We should learn from Britain about it and make them sit on simple benches side by side so that they do not misunderstand that they are "erai hito" (eminent people).

What if another lie, another missing file, another cover up? Abe simply makes another apology? When end is end, enough is enough, law is law, justice is justice?

Opposition parties are generally in a habit of levelling baseless allegations without any solid proof or evidence against the ruling government head and thus malign his reputation and ranking the eyes of the public. When legal cases are filed against the person involved in the court of law , such people tender unqualified apologies before the court and the public. Such tactics are quite often adopted to bring down the established governments these days.

BS Sharma - Since ministry officials are admitting to rewriting documents to remove politicians' names and encouraging other people to lie, these allegations are not baseless.

Sorry, B.I. Sharma - genuine mistake.

We should learn from Britain about it and make them sit on simple benches side by side so that they do not misunderstand that they are "erai hito" (eminent people).

More to do with history and tradition than able being humble.

A protester holds a placard reading "Abe should go to prison" during a recent rally in Tokyo,

More please!