Japan's Finance Ministry suggested cover story for land sale - Reuters

According to reporting by Reuters, Japan's Finance Ministry proposed creating a cover story to justify the discounted land sale that was made to a school operator with personal ties to Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe.

Key quotes (source: Reuters)

"The admission is likely to increase opposition parties’ calls for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to resign over the scandal involving the sale of state-owned land to school operator Moritomo Gakuen, which had ties to Abe’s wife."

"Following reports of the cover story, Abe on Monday repeated earlier statements in parliament that he and his wife were not involved in the land sale and said there is no evidence indicating they were involved."

" “Last year on Feb. 20 a finance bureau employee contacted Moritomo Gakuen’s lawyer ... and suggested saying a lot of money was spent on the removal of rubbish and thousands of trucks were used,” Mitsuru Ota, head of the Finance Ministry’s finance bureau, told parliament."

" “Moritomo’s lawyer did not take any action on this phone call. It was wrong for us to ask Moritomo Gakuen to say something that was not true,” Ota said, adding that the attempt to cook up a story was “highly embarrassing”."

"Ota’s comments confirmed a report by public broadcaster NHK last week and followed a March 12 admission by the ministry that it had altered documents relating to the land sale."