NHK has learned that prosecutors have questioned a former senior Finance Ministry official about a document-tampering scandal in connection with the discounted sale of state-owned land.
Sources say the prosecutors in Osaka, western Japan, interviewed Nobuhisa Sagawa on a voluntary basis.
Sagawa is accused of playing a key role in altering ministry documents about the sale of the land to school operator Moritomo Gakuen at a fraction of its market value.
He formerly headed the ministry's Financial Bureau, which doctored papers related to the deal.
The deal raised allegations of favoritism, because Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wife, Akie, briefly served as the honorary principal of an elementary school that was due to open on the land.
The ministry says it altered the documents between February and April of last year to make them consistent with Sagawa's remarks in the Diet.
At that time, Sagawa told lawmakers that the discount was made to offset the cost Moritomo would shoulder to remove buried waste.
But the ministry recently admitted that one of its officials asked the school operator to lie about the amount of waste involved.
Sagawa testified before the Diet last month as a sworn witness.
He denied that he acted on orders from the prime minister or his wife, but refused to say whether he was involved in document-tampering, citing the risk of criminal prosecution.
Citizens' groups have asked prosecutors to investigate Sagawa on suspicion of forging and altering documents.
Sources told NHK that ministry officials repeatedly emailed instructions to the regional bureau in charge of the land sale to alter the related documents.
One ministry official reportedly told prosecutors that Sagawa ordered the alterations.
Source: ANNnewsCH
