Japan’s National Tax Agency chief, under fire for remarks about a suspected cronyism scandal, quit on Friday, but his resignation was unlikely to end the furor over the affair that threatens to erode Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s popularity.
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s National Tax Agency chief, under fire for remarks about a suspected cronyism scandal, quit on Friday, but his resignation was unlikely to end the furor over the affair that threatens to erode Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s popularity.
Finance Minister Taro Aso told a news conference that Sagawa, a former ministry official appointed to the tax post last July, had offered his resignation for causing confusion in parliament, where debate has been snarled over the affair.
Sagawa has been accused of trying, last year, to dispel suspicion that a school operator with ties to Abe’s wife, Akie, got a sweetheart deal on land for a school in the city of Osaka which helped slice the premier’s popularity.
Aso, a close Abe ally, said Sagawa would take a temporary pay cut and might face more punishment.
But the unrepentant finance minister added that Sagawa had done a good job and his appointment was appropriate.
Aso, 77, also said he himself had no intention to quit over the affair. “Sagawa’s resignation is regrettable. But I have no plan now to resign,” Aso said.
Abe has denied that he or his wife did favors for the former head of school operator Moritomo Gakuen, Yasunori Kagoike. Kagoike and his wife were arrested in July on suspicion of illegally receiving subsidies.
Abe, in his sixth year in office and eyeing a three-year extension from September, had seemed to put the matter behind him with a big election win for the ruling bloc in October.
