The Foreign Ministry will demand that a nongovernmental organization that falsified documents to get government subsidies in 2001 refrain from accepting the subsidies for fiscal 2002, and if it doesn't cooperate, the funds will be withheld anyway, ministry officials said Monday.
The ministry wants the Japan Association for Greening Deserts, which assists China in reforestation projects, to drop its claims to 3.269 million yen it was to receive for the current fiscal year. The NGO will also be asked to give back the money paid to it last year and may face criminal charges, the officials said earlier.
The ministry was to inspect the association's head office in Tottori on Tuesday and ask it to forgo the money, they said, adding that if the group refuses, the ministry will cancel the subsidy provision under legislation that allows it to do so under special circumstances.