Photo/Illutration Lawyers enter the Osaka District Court in Osaka’s Kita Ward on Jan. 30. (Yoshinori Mizuno)

OSAKA—The Osaka High Court on Jan. 30 overturned a ruling by the Osaka District Court not to disclose documents related to the falsification of official records concerning the sale of state-owned land to the Moritomo Gakuen educational institution.

In the case, Masako Akagi, 53, the widow of Finance Ministry employee Toshio Akagi, who committed suicide in 2018 after being forced to falsify official documents, had asked the appeals court to rescind the decision not to disclose the relevant documents.

The Osaka District Court in September 2023 ruled against the release of the documents by the central government, citing a risk "that the prosecutors’ investigative methods and the scope of the investigation would be revealed."

But the Osaka High Court disputed that reasoning.

"If the existence or non-existence of the information is disclosed, it cannot be said that the policy or intent of the investigation will be revealed, or that there is any risk that it will hinder the investigation,” the high court said. 

After the ruling, Masako told reporters, “I want the central government to provide documents that show why my husband was involved in the falsification. The official documents do not belong to the government, but to the people. I want the (central government) to follow the ruling without appealing.”

Masako made the request for disclosure of the documents in 2021, which was submitted by the ministry and its Kinki Local Finance Bureau to the Public Prosecutors Office.

However, the request was denied on the grounds that it would hinder the investigation, and without disclosing whether the documents existed.

In March 2024, while the appeals hearing was in progress, a board of the communications ministry, which consisted of experts, issued a report that the decision should be reversed on the grounds that “answering whether or not the documents existed would not hinder the investigation.”

However, the Finance Ministry once again decided not to disclose the materials.

At the appeals hearing, Masako’s side pointed out that out of the approximately 15,000 past reports made by such boards, the administrative body had failed to follow the recommendations in only 24 cases.

Her side criticized the Finance Ministry’s response as “neglecting the board system.”

The central government countered that “the report was incorrect.”