Abe<\/a> and his finance minister Taro Aso have been on the ropes in recent days following revelations that key documents relating to a controversial land sale were doctored before being sent to MPs.<\/p>\n Aso was forced to fend off opposition calls to resign on Monday after admitting his ministry altered 14 sets of documents sent to parliament.<\/p>\n The scandal surrounds the 2016 sale of state-owned land to a nationalist operator of schools who claims ties to Abe and his wife Akie.<\/p>\n The sale was clinched at a price well below market value amid allegations that the high-level connections helped grease the deal.<\/p>\n Abe and Aso both apologised “deeply” over the affair amid signs the PM’s popularity is suffering six months before he stands for re-election as head of the ruling LDP party.<\/p>\n A new poll released by public broadcaster NHK Tuesday showed support for the Abe government dropped to the lowest since he won a resounding re-election<\/a> in October.<\/p>\n His support fell by two percentage points to 44 percent from last month, NHK said, while a separate survey in the Yomiuri Shimbun daily showed support down six percentage points to 48 percent.<\/p>\n Commentators said the survival of Aso, a close Abe ally and deputy prime minister, was key to the leader’s own ability to stay in the job.<\/p>\n Aso has been at the centre of the Abe administration since its start in December 2012, playing a key role in the prime minister’s trademark “Abenomics” economic policy.<\/p>\n “If Aso leaves the government, the cabinet would surely be destabilised,” the Yomiuri Shimbun said Tuesday.<\/p>\n Adding to the sense of political crisis in Japan<\/a>, Aso hinted he might skip a Group of 20 finance ministers’ meeting next week in Buenos Aires, saying his attendance “depends on the situation of the current parliament”.<\/p>\n ‘Full disclosure’<\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile, opposition lawmakers stepped up their offensive, boycotting parliament debates while demanding key figures in the scandal including Abe’s wife Akie, be summoned to testify.<\/p>\n They have threatened to continue parliamentary boycotts until they receive “the full disclosure of truth” over the scandal.<\/p>\n Aso has blamed lower level officials, but opposition lower house member Satoshi Arai tweeted Tuesday it is “impossible to do this without approval by (Aso’s) secretariat”.<\/p>\n Abe has previously vowed to resign if he is found to have had links to the disputed land sale and attention is already turning to his bid to be re-elected head of the LDP — and therefore prime minister.<\/p>\n “Abe’s chances of winning a third three-year term as LDP president after his term expires in September have plummeted,” said Tobias Harris, vice-president of Teneo Intelligence analysts.<\/p>\n Media attention has focused on the criminal nature of altering public documents with many saying bureaucrats would not have done this without political pressure.<\/p>\n “Doctoring public documents is an act that shakes the foundation of democracy,” said the Asahi Shimbun.<\/p>\n One key official linked to the scandal was found dead last week in a suspected suicide.<\/p>\n His family has urged authorities to get to the bottom of the scandal.<\/p>\n (AFP)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pressure mounted Tuesday on Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over a ballooning cronyism and cover-up scandal, as a new poll showed his support at the lowest level since his re-election in October. Abe and his finance minister Taro Aso have been on the ropes in recent days following revelations that key documents relating to a controversial land sale were doctored… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1398,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions\/1398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}