NEWSWORTHY
Kagoike couple at heart of Japan PM Abe's Moritomo Gakuen cronyism scandal plead not guilty
The former head of a school operator and his wife, who are at the heart of a cronyism scandal linked to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of fraud related to public subsidies for their schools, claiming their arrests were ...
The Japan Times newsroom selected the following domestic news stories as the most important of 2018.
Year of the Dog fails to answer the tough questions
Sodanē. What an innocent, carefree year it must have been to spawn so bland a word of the year. It has a nice ring to it, especially when spoken with the Hokkaido lilt the women's curling team — surprise bronze medalists — gave it during ...
Yoshitada Konoike, a Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker best known for his role as chair of a Diet panel that debated controversial security bills, has died, sources close to him said Tuesday. He was 78. A House of Councilors member, Konoike presided over debates in the ...
Japan auditors release Moritomo Gakuen report but fail to answer why land was sold so cheap
The national accounting watchdog released a report Thursday on the murky sale of state land in 2016 involving a school operator close to the wife of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but fell short of identifying why the land was sold at a heavily discounted ...
As Diet wraps up, Abe re-emerges as front-runner for LDP election
As recently as spring, the Abe administration was in disarray, weakened by what appeared to be an unstoppable flow of scandals and missteps.
An opposition party plans to ask other parties to back the filing a criminal complaint against former Finance Ministry official Nobuhisa Sagawa, accusing him of committing perjury in the Diet while testifying about the document-tampering in the Moritomo Gakuen scandal, a lawmaker said Sunday. Tetsuro ...
Inquest sought over decision not to indict Finance Ministry officials over document tampering
A group of citizens filed a petition with a prosecution inquest panel in Osaka on Tuesday to review the decision not to indict former and current Finance Ministry officials involved in the manipulation of official documents related to a controversial sale of state-owned land. "I ...
Finance Ministry punishes Nobuhisa Sagawa and 19 other officials over Moritomo document tampering
Finance Minister Taro Aso will also voluntarily return one year of his Cabinet salary.
Finance Ministry officials say Nobuhisa Sagawa ordered falsification of Moritomo papers: sources
Finance Ministry officials have testified that former senior official Nobuhisa Sagawa told them to falsify documents on its controversial sale of state land to school operator Moritomo Gakuen, it has been learned. Sagawa, 60, apparently found problems in Moritomo-related documents with seals affixed to them ...
Charges dropped against ex-bureaucrat for alleged document tampering
After scrutinizing altered documents related to a controversial land sale, prosecutors seem unable to identify changes substantial enough to constitute a criminal offense, sources said.
Finance Ministry's Moritomo document ploy not linked to vow to resign, Abe says
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denies the Finance Ministry’s document-tampering and disposal bids were triggered by his pledge last year to resign if evidence proved he or his wife were involved in the Moritomo Gakuen land scandal.
