Opposition parties hold street speeches demanding truth over Moritomo scandal

Japan's opposition parties held street speeches on March 21 demanding the truth over the Finance Ministry's doctoring of documents concerning the heavily discounted sale of state-owned land to school operator Moritomo Gakuen.

Roughly 1,000 people turned up on Spring Equinox Day to hear speeches by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP), outside Tokyo's JR Shinjuku Station, despite wintry, rainy conditions.

"Akie Abe is the prime minister's wife. She isn't a purely private citizen. It goes without saying that she should come to the Diet and talk about the matter, so as to dispel public distrust in politics and the government," said CDP leader Yukio Edano, demanding that Akie give sworn testimony in the Diet. The statement was met with applause as well as cries of, "That's right!"

Akie is allegedly connected to Moritomo Gakuen, and it emerged earlier this month that her name had been deleted from altered Finance Ministry's documents concerning the sale of the land in Osaka Prefecture.

Meanwhile, Nobuhisa Sagawa, former head of the National Tax Agency, is due to give sworn testimony regarding the scandal in the Diet on March 27 -- with Japan's opposition parties likely to persist in holding Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other related parties responsible for the scandal.