THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
December 15, 2021 at 18:40 JST
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida prepares to answer a question at the Dec. 15 Lower House Budget Committee session. (Koichi Ueda)
Both Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and infrastructure minister Tetsuo Saito apologized on Dec. 15 for the eight years of construction contract figures that were falsified under the instructions of ministry bureaucrats.
The two were asked by Takeshi Shina, a member of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, in the Lower House Budget Committee session about The Asahi Shimbun report on the inflated contract numbers, which are used to calculate GDP and other economic statistics.
“It is an extremely regrettable development and we must make efforts to ensure this never happens again,” Kishida said.
The prime minister said the report was accurate, but he stopped short of clearly endorsing Shina’s proposal to set up a third-party committee to investigate the matter to clarify the motive and identify those who should be held responsible.
Saito also apologized and described the matter as “extremely regrettable.”
Economic stats inflated for years on ministry’s instructions
December 15, 2021
Fraudsters using ‘vacant’ rooms in Kinki area to deliver the goods
August 19, 2021
Police to probe Aichi governor recall petition for alleged fraud
February 16, 2021
EDITORIAL: It’s time for new Lower House to restore Diet’s watchdog role
November 1, 2021
LDP candidates show no interest in digging up Abe scandals
September 16, 2021
Mitsubishi Electric president to step down over fake test data
July 2, 2021
Stories about memories of cherry blossoms solicited from readers
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series on the death of a Japanese woman that sparked a debate about criminal justice policy in the United States
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
