TOKYO: Japan’s National Tax Agency chief, under fire for remarks about a suspected cronyism scandal, quit on Friday, but his resignation was unlikely to end the furore over the affair that threatens to erode Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s popularity.
Finance Minister Taro Aso told a news conference that Sagawa, a former ministry official appointed to the tax post last July, had offered his resignation for causing confusion in parliament, where debate has been snarled over the affair.
Sagawa has been accused of trying, last year, to dispel suspicion that a school operator with ties to Abe’s wife, Akie, got a sweetheart deal on land for a school in the city of Osaka which helped slice the premier’s popularity.
The official in the region where the school is located was found dead at his home on Wednesday and police are investigating the matter as a suicide, Kyodo and Jiji news agencies said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular news conference that he had been notified about the death of the official but declined to give any details. He said he did not know whether the official had been questioned by prosecutors. Protesters demanding the resignations of Sagawa and Aso have gathered in front of the ministry in recent weeks. The ministry on Thursday released to parliament hundreds of pages of what it said were copies of the original documents, but opposition lawmakers said their doubts remained.
