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Japan PM Abe, finance chief under pressure as land deal scandal gathers momentum

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Japan PM Abe, finance chief under pressure as land deal scandal gathers momentum

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Finance Minister Taro Aso are facing intensifying scrutiny amid reports that the finance ministry altered documents related to a government land sale at the center of an alleged cronyism scandal, Reuters reported March 12.

References to Abe, Aso, and Abe's wife, Akie, were removed from the documents after the scandal broke in February 2017, Reuters reported, citing the documents it said it had seen. Questions have been raised over the deal's high discount and Akie's ties to the buyer, school operator Moritomo Gakuen.

Abe has denied that he or his wife performed favors for Moritomo Gakuen, and has said he would resign if any evidence showed that they had. The school operator's former head Yasunori Kagoike and Kagoike's wife were arrested in July 2017 on suspicion of illegally receiving subsidies, the newswire reported.

"The involvement of Mrs. Abe has deepened," opposition Democratic Party leader Yuichiro Tamaki was quoted by Kyodo news agency as saying, Reuters reported. "This has entered the stage where the responsibility of the prime minister himself will be called into question."

Aso said in a news conference March 9 that several officials overseeing the sale at his ministry's division were involved in altering the documents, but did not explain the reason for the alterations. Opposition politicians have called for the resignation of Aso, who also serves as deputy premier to Abe, but the finance minister has refused to do so even as he apologized for his ministry's actions.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga did not directly respond to a question about Akie Abe but said Aso should investigate the facts. "What is important is to make everything clear," he said, Reuters reported.

Cover-up suspicions could erode Abe's ratings and extinguish hopes of a third term as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, which will hold its leadership vote in September. Support for Abe's cabinet has fallen to 48%, down 6 percentage points from a month earlier, Reuters reported, citing a Yomiuri newspaper survey March 9-11. About 80% said the matter had not been handled appropriately.

National Tax Agency chief Nobuhisa Sagawa, who headed the ministry division that submitted the documents before he was appointed as tax agency head, resigned March 9 over his previous remarks in parliament about the case.