Photo/Illutration Telecommunications minister Takeaki Matsumoto at a news conference on March 7 (Yasuro Suzuki)

The telecommunications minister is admitting that internal documents from when Shinzo Abe was prime minister, which show top officials leaning on ministry bureaucrats to change how broadcasters are assessed on political fairness, are, in fact, authentic.

Takeaki Matsumoto made the admission at a news conference on the morning of March 7, but couched that some parts of the contentious documents have yet to be confirmed as accurate and the ministry will continue to examine the matter.

“In some cases, we were unable to confirm who made the document. But even in such cases, we were able to reach a conclusion that they were either obtained by or made by the ministry, based on the materials before and after,” he said.

All the documents are considered public records under the law regarding management of public records, he said, and the ministry is expected to release them on March 7.

The documents were first made public on March 2 by Hiroyuki Konishi, an Upper House member of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.

Konishi said he obtained the 80 pages of documents from a ministry bureaucrat, which detail conversations between Yosuke Isozaki, who served as Abe’s special adviser, and ministry officials.

In their exchanges, Isozaki pressed ministry officials to change the method for judging whether broadcasters are being neutral in their coverage of parties and politicians.

The documents show remarks believed to have been made by Abe and Sanae Takaichi, the state minister in charge of economic security, who was telecommunications minister at the time.

Matsumoto said the ministry had not confirmed if some of the things written in the documents were accurate because some people involved in the matter dispute some of the contents.

Takaichi has publicly accused the opposition party of producing fabricated documents.

Matsumoto responded, “I, too, think that I should take special notice of the fact that (Takaichi) publicly and clearly said that they are (fabricated).”

Takaichi held a news conference on March 7 and doubled down on her position.

“I understand (the documents) were fabricated and the contents are inaccurate,” she said.

Takaichi had said if the documents turned out to be authentic, she would not hesitate to resign from the Diet.

Asked whether she should resign after the ministry’s admission, she said, “If I were to be asked to resign from the Diet, then they would have to (first) verify that the documents are completely accurate.”

Takaichi said the documents are missing the names of the people who prepared them and dates, and she denied that she had a phone conversation with Abe as the records suggested.

She said if the ministry asks her about the matter, she would “answer squarely.”

Isozaki told The Asahi Shimbun that a new interpretation was added in the arrangement of the documents suggesting he was lobbying ministry officials.

During the Upper House Budget Committee meeting on March 6, the ministry admitted that Isozaki had contacted the ministry about the matter.

“Taking this opportunity, a supplementary explanation on interpretation was provided,” Matsumoto said at the meeting.

The central government had said when it comes to determining political fairness under the broadcasting law, it renders a judgment based on all the broadcaster’s programming, not just over a single program.

But in May 2015, while Abe was still prime minister, Takaichi described a new interpretation during a Diet session.

“In an extreme case, even a single program can be deemed as not having secured political fairness.”

In February 2016, the ministry said what Takaichi said represents the government’s collective view.

“I think it should still be kept now as a supplementary explanation of the existing interpretation,” Matsumoto said at the March 7 news conference.

“I don’t think that there was a change in broadcast administration before or after this case,” he added.

(This article was compiled from reports by Yoshikatsu Nakajima, Yasuro Suzuki and Yuta Kayaba.)

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