Finance minister to skip G20 summit

TOKYO: Japan’s finance minister will skip a G20 meeting next week, officials said yesterday, to address parliament as pressure mounts over a cronyism scandal and alleged coverup dogging the prime minister.

Taro Aso “will concentrate on” dealing with parliament, and will be represented at the meeting by his deputy Minoru Kihara, a ministry official said.

Ruling and opposition l awmakers have agreed to hold a hearing on Monday on the growing scandal over the cut-price sale of government land to a supporter of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and the alteration of finance ministry documents related to the deal.

Mr Aso and Mr Abe will attend the parliamentary session, according to opposition Democratic Party officials.

Both have been on the ropes in recent days as the cronyism and coverup scandal balloons.

Mr Aso is under intense scrutiny after he admitted this week that official papers related to the favouritism scandal had been altered.

He has repeatedly apologised, but rejected calls from the opposition to step down over the row, saying his job is “to find out truth” about the scandal.

The scandal centres on the 2016 sale of state-owned land to one of Mr Abe’s supporters at a price well below market value.

It first emerged early last year, but resurfaced after the revelation that official documents related to the sale had been changed.

Versions of the original and doctored documents made public by opposition lawmakers appeared to show passing references to Mr Abe had been scrubbed, along with several references to his wife, Akie, and to Mr Aso.

Mr Aso has blamed the alterations on “some staff members” at the ministry, and says he had only learned about them on Sunday.

However, top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Thursday for his part that he and Mr Abe learned about the possibility that documents had been altered days earlier.

Opposition parties want to summon Nobuhisa Sagawa, formerly the head of the finance ministry department that oversaw the land deal, to testify in parliament.

Mr Sagawa was promoted last year to tax agency chief but stepped down last week over the scandal.

Adding to the row, a ministry official at the heart of the land deal was found dead last week in a suspected suicide.

Japanese media reported yesterday that files found on his computer say he was “forced to alter documents” by a superior, without naming the person.