Risenyou Academy scandal re-fermented or dealt a heavy blow to Abe’s regime.

　　Xinhua News Agency, Tokyo, March 10 (international observation) The scandal of "land price gate" has fermented again or hit the Abe regime hard.

　　Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Kejia Jiang Qiaomei

　　Japanese Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso announced on the evening of 9 th that he accepted the resignation request of Sasakawa Xuanshou, the head of the National Tax Agency and former director of the Finance Bureau of the Ministry of Finance. Since the Japanese media exposed the approval documents related to land sales in the Ministry of Finance or were tampered with at the beginning of this month, the "land price gate" scandal of Senyou Academy has once again fermented, causing doubts from all walks of life in Japan.

　　Analysts pointed out that if the "land price gate" scandal continues to ferment, it will cause a heavy blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s regime, and may even have an impact on constitutional amendment and presidential election of the Liberal Democratic Party.

　　Scandal referment

　　"Asahi Shimbun" reported on the 2nd that the approval documents related to land sale issued by Kinki Finance Bureau of the Ministry of Finance in the "land price gate" scandal may have been tampered with. The report pointed out that some expressions such as "special case" and "particularity" describing that the government had given special treatment to Senyou Academy were deleted in the version of the document submitted to members of Congress for deliberation. This report made the scandal of "land price gate" ferment again.

　　Under pressure from all walks of life, the Ministry of Finance submitted copies of relevant documents to the National Assembly on the 8th. However, the document submitted by the Ministry of Finance is not only the same as the previous version submitted to members of Congress for consideration, but also does not give a clear conclusion on whether the document has been tampered with.

　　Asahi Shimbun reported more relevant documents or tampered details on the 9th. On the same day, a number of Japanese media reported that a staff member of Kinki Finance Bureau responsible for negotiating with Senyou Academy committed suicide a few days ago. For a time, the "land price gate" incident intensified.

　　The opposition party criticized the government and the Ministry of Finance for their lack of sincerity in solving the problem. Since the 6th, they refused to attend the deliberation of the National Assembly in protest.

　　In February 2017, Senyou Academy was exposed by the Japanese media that a piece of state-owned land with an estimated value of nearly 1 billion yen (about 60 million yuan) was obtained for the construction of primary schools. Abe was exposed to be very close to Senyou Academy, and his wife, Abe Zhaohui, was once the honorary principal of a right-wing kindergarten under the Academy. All walks of life in Japan have therefore questioned the Japanese government’s "green light" for Senyou Academy to buy land and run schools because of the Abe couple. Affected by a series of scandals such as the "land price gate" of Senyou Academy, Abe’s cabinet support rate once fell below the 30% mark last year.

　　Resignation is questioned

　　Aso said that Sagawa decided to resign as the head of the National Tax Agency because he was criticized for his lack of serious performance in Congress and improper management of administrative documents during his tenure as the director of the Finance Bureau of the Ministry of Finance. Aso also announced that he would come up with the investigation results of whether the Ministry of Finance tampered with the approval documents as soon as next week.

　　Sagawa has served as the director of the Finance Bureau of the Ministry of Finance since June 2016. In 2017, Sagawa attended many congressional deliberations on the "land price gate" scandal. He insisted in Congress that the relevant documents and records had been destroyed and denied that there was government administrative intervention in the incident, and was criticized by the opposition party for making a false reply. Afterwards, Sagawa was promoted to be the head of the national tax agency, but he did not hold a press conference to face the public. This personnel transfer was questioned by many parties such as the opposition party.

　　On the 9th, Sekiwon Kiyomi, chairman of the parliamentary countermeasure committee of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, criticized Sagawa’s resignation as a "lizard-broken tail" move by the government, and said that the scandal would never end as soon as the government wished. On the same day, Tetsuro Fukuyama, the party’s secretary-general, once again demanded that Sagawa be summoned to testify in the National Assembly, and demanded that the Ministry of Finance be required to submit relevant information by exercising the power of national investigation.

　　Kyodo News pointed out that Sagawa’s resignation may show that Abe is trying to calm down the situation in order to minimize the impact of the incident on the congressional review of the fiscal year 2018 budget, but it is still unpredictable when the Congress that has fallen into chaos will return to normal.

　　Add variables to political situation

　　Analysts pointed out that with the resurgence of the "land price gate" scandal, doubts about the government from all walks of life are constantly increasing, and the development of the situation is full of uncertainty. The Abe regime may be hit hard, and major events such as the constitutional amendment and the presidential election of the Liberal Democratic Party, which Abe attaches great importance to, may also be affected.

　　Kyodo News pointed out that at this point, the opposition party will continue to pursue the truth of the falsification of the official documents of the Ministry of Finance, and even pursue the corresponding responsibilities of Aso and Abe.

　　Some Japanese media also believe that the Ministry of Finance’s lack of positive response to the scandal has caused dissatisfaction among the opposition parties and the ruling Coalition, including Nikai Toshihiro, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party. Once Nikai Toshihiro, who has clearly expressed his support for Abe, changes his position on the presidential election of the Liberal Democratic Party, Abe’s re-election strategy will be uncertain.

　　In an interview with Xinhua News Agency, Magosaki Ukeru, a former senior official of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that at present, the situation is more serious, and the possibility of forging official documents in the Ministry of Finance is very high. If the scandal continues to ferment, it may lead to Aso’s resignation. As one of the centers of Abe’s regime, if Aso leaves, it will weaken Abe’s ruling foundation. For Abe, this scandal is of great significance, which may affect his future advance and retreat. Therefore, he will fully respond and seek an early end to the incident.