Authority Concludes It As Inappropriate

Board of Audit of Japan submitted a report to the Diet on Wednesday about selling government-owned land to an educational corporation close to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Moritomo Gakuen. The report did not find sufficient cause for the government to discount the price by about ¥800 million, raising doubts on the handling of Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism. It is inevitable that Moritomo scandal is ignited again.

When the land was sold to Moritomo Gakuen in June 2016, its appraisal value was determined to be ¥965 million. After Moritomo claimed that there was a certain amount of debris underground, MoF reduced the price by ¥820 million for the cost of removing the debris and sold it with the price of ¥134 million. It was highly unusual 85% discount of government-owned property without disclosure of sales price immediately.

BoA made its original estimation of the removal of underground debris. The Board concluded that the cost for removal was cheaper by 30% to 70% than that MLIT had estimated, criticizing the estimate as lacking careful research. BOA also found that MoF’s reasoning for special deal for Moritomo with late payment was baseless. There was no case except Morimoto in selling of government-owned property with special deal of late payment between 2012 and 2016.

First Lady Akie Abe was the honorable principal of the school, which Moritomo Gakuen tried to establish on the discounted land. No one can help doubting that the bureaucrats of Ministries might have offered a good deal preferable to a school closely related to their supreme boss. Prime Minister Abe has been saying that he would thoroughly explain the scandal. As the top leader of the exceptive branch, Abe is responsible for ordering his bureaucrats opening all the information. But, the bureaucrats have destroyed related documents to erase the process of Moritomo scandal.

The opposite parties argue that the scandal is proved to be true. Secretary General of Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Tetsuro Fukuyama, asserted that the argument of the opposite parties was approved to be correct by BoA report. “With no official record kept, it is obvious that the selling of land property was made without clear process,” said Fukuyama in internal meeting of the party. Party of Hope and Democratic Party agreed on inviting then Director-General of Financial Bureau, Nobuhisa Sagawa, to the Diet for a testimony.

It is likely that some leaders in Liberal Democratic Party will urge further explanation of Abe administration. Chairman of LDP Policy Research Council, Fumio Kishida, demanded the government detailed answer to the question the people embraced. With decline of political power of Abe, Moritomo Scandal disturbs his agenda.