Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday said he accepted blame for an unravelling scandal in which official records were tampered with, but resisted opposition calls for him and Finance Minister Taro Aso to resign..
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday said he accepted blame for an unravelling scandal in which official records were tampered with, but resisted opposition calls for him and Finance Minister Taro Aso to resign.
« The ultimate responsibility lies with me as the head of the administrative branch. I would like to apologise once again, » Mr Abe told Parliament. « We take seriously the fact that this is a situation that has shaken public confidence in the entire administration. »
Support ratings for his Cabinet have plunged below 40 per cent in four separate media polls over the weekend, but he said it is now his task to look into why the doctoring happened and to win back public trust.
Last week, the Finance Ministry admitted that 14 documents related to a dubious sale of state land at one-seventh of the appraised value to nationalistic school operator Moritomo Gakuen had been altered. The educator intended to build a new elementary school, with Mr Abe’s wife Akie named as honorary principal.
The papers were scrubbed of all mention of Mr Abe and his wife, as well as lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). It emerged yesterday that another set of documents, which shows a record of price negotiations with Moritomo before the sale, was missing from what was submitted to Parliament last week.
