Senior Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Shinzo Abe admitted Wednesday that he told NHK to edit its coverage of a mock trial that found Emperor Showa guilty of war crimes before it was aired in 2001, raising questions about government censorship of the media.
The government has denied that Abe's conduct constituted state interference in public media, even though he was deputy chief Cabinet secretary at the time.
"Because I was told that the mock trial was going to be reported in the way that the organizers wanted it to be, I looked into the matter," Abe, now deputy LDP secretary general, said in a statement released to the media.