Mar 28 (NHK) - A key figure in the Finance Ministry's document-falsifying scandal related to a shady land deal has testified that neither Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nor his wife Akie was involved in the matter.
Nobuhisa Sagawa gave sworn testimony before the budget committees of both houses of the Diet on Tuesday.
Sagawa formerly headed the Finance Ministry's Financial Bureau, which doctored papers pertaining to the steeply discounted sale in 2016 of state-owned land in Osaka to private school operator Moritomo Gakuen.
At a Lower House committee session in the afternoon, a lawmaker from the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party asked why Sagawa could assert, as he did earlier in the day, that neither the prime minister nor his wife was involved in any way in the land deal.
Sagawa explained that his remarks in the Diet were based on what he heard from Financial Bureau officials, and that he had not been told of any involvement by the couple.
Sagawa was also asked if he took any action after Abe said in the Diet in February of last year that he would quit as prime minister and as a lawmaker if he or his wife were found to be involved.
Sagawa said he did not consult with Finance Ministry officials or the prime minister's office on what to do about Abe's remarks.
The Finance Ministry has suggested that Sagawa was heavily involved in the document falsifications. Lawmakers asked when he learned about the alterations.
Sagawa refused to answer these questions, citing the possibility of criminal prosecution.
Earlier this month, a male employee of the Financial Bureau's Osaka branch committed suicide, leaving a note saying he was forced to alter documents on the instructions of a higher-up.
When asked about the memo, Sagawa said he knows no details about the man's death.
Sagawa also said he still believes the land sale was conducted properly.
