Photo/Illutration Masako Akagi points to her late husband's name contained in a copy of an email. (Yusuke Morishita)

The widow of a Finance Ministry bureaucrat who committed suicide finally got her hands on a file that he had compiled regarding falsified public documents related to a dodgy sale of state-owned land.

The central government sent about 500 pages of the file to the lawyer of Masako Akagi, 50, who has sued the government over the death of her husband, Toshio.

The so-called Akagi document, which arrived at the lawyer’s office on June 22, includes Toshio’s memos that clearly state that “all responsibility” for the falsification of the documents rests with the Finance Ministry’s Financial Bureau in Tokyo.

Other records in the file said the falsification actions were taken under the responsibility of the head of the Kinki Local Finance Bureau, where Toshio had worked.

There were also copies of email exchanges between Tokyo and Osaka regarding the doctoring of the documents.

Toshio committed suicide in 2018, apparently in distress over following the orders to falsify the documents.

After looking over the file, Masako said, “When I think about what my husband was going through, I become very emotional that he likely left this behind after being so troubled.”

The falsified documents were related to the sale of state-owned land in Osaka Prefecture to Moritomo Gakuen, which wanted to open a private elementary school.

Opposition party lawmakers said the steep discount offered for the land was related to the school operator’s relationship to then first lady Akie Abe. The documents were falsified to conceal any connection to Abe or her husband, Shinzo, who was prime minister at the time.

However, no one has been prosecuted over the falsifications of the public records.

At a June 22 news conference in Tokyo, Finance Minister Taro Aso said a minimum of masking of personal information in the Akagi file was intended to protect the privacy of individuals and also from an information security standpoint.

He again said the ministry had no plans to open another investigation into the falsified documents.

In March 2020, Masako filed a lawsuit seeking compensation from the central government and Nobuhisa Sagawa, who was head of the Financial Bureau at the time of the document falsification. She has argued that the orders from ministry headquarters in Tokyo led Toshio to suffer depression and commit suicide.

Lawyers for Masako submitted an audio recording of Toshio’s former superior saying that he left behind a record of the document falsification. In February, they asked the Osaka District Court to order the central government to release the Akagi file.

For a long time, Finance Ministry officials refused to say if the file even existed. But in May, central government officials said they would release the file voluntarily.

The file will be presented to the Osaka District Court on June 23, when oral arguments will be held regarding Masako’s lawsuit.

(This article was written by Yuto Yoneda and Yusuke Morishita.)

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