In an effort to clear the air over Japan Highway Public Corp.'s disputed balance sheet, transport minister Nobuteru Ishihara said the government will draft its own version of the public entity's financial standings and present it to the Diet.
"The government needs to draw up a proper balance sheet and clarify (items such as) cash flow and assets" before the bills to privatize Japan Highway and three other highway operators are submitted to the regular Diet session that opens in January, the land, infrastructure and transport minister said.
A balance sheet released by Japan Highway in June shows it had a positive net worth of 5.76 trillion yen as of March 31. But the existence of a "secret" balance sheet drawn up by a project team last year shows the entity is actually in capital deficit.