The government said Tuesday it will promote Nobuhisa Sagawa, a senior Finance Ministry official who defended the central government amid a scandal involving a shady land deal and school operator Moritomo Gakuen, to the head of the National Tax Agency.
The promotion, effective Thursday, has drawn varying reactions from users on social media, including those who regard it as a reward from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for defending him in the Moritomo Gakuen scandal.
During Diet sessions, Sagawa, as head of the ministry's Financial Bureau, claimed that the Finance Ministry had already discarded key documents covering negotiations which led to an 86 percent discount for a parcel of government-owned land in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, to Moritomo Gakuen in June 2016.