The ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito attempted Thursday to shift blame for the pension data fiasco onto former opposition leader Naoto Kan, who was health minister at the time the government decided to computerize the records.

Kan, a senior member of the Democratic Party of Japan, was health minister in 1996 when the computerization plan was approved. But his 1997 successor was Junichiro Koizumi, who would go on to become prime minister and head of the LDP.

It is still unclear exactly which ministry entities and bureaucrats were responsible for hammering out and signing the flawed computer plan.