The official at the heart of a cronyism scandal engulfing Shinzo Abe’s government has insisted that the Japanese prime minister and his aides did not order him to falsify documents.
Nobuhisa Sagawa, an ex-finance ministry bureaucrat, said the decision to alter documents about a sale of public land was made by his staff alone. He said there were no orders from Mr Abe, his wife Akie Abe, finance minister Taro Aso or any of the prime minister’s aides.
But in a testimony to the upper house of parliament, Mr Sagawa declined to say anything about why the documents were falsified, pleading his right to avoid self-incrimination. “There is a risk of criminal charges so I decline to comment,” he said repeatedly.
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