Japan's farm minister has filed false financial statements, reports said Saturday, in the latest in a series of scandals to plague Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government. The reports involving agriculture minister Norihiko Akagi, who only took up the position last month after his predecessor hanged himself amid a scandal, comes just weeks ahead of crucial elections.
One of the minister's supporter groups was registered at his father's home and booked some 76 million yen (616 million dollars) in rent, utilities and other costs, Kyodo news agency said.
However, Akagi's parents denied to local media that their house in Ibaraki prefecture was used as an office. They also said they had not received any rent or utility payments. "I've never received any rent," Akagi's father told Kyodo News. "My house has not been used as the office."
According to Kyodo News, Akagi's group booked the costs from 1998 to 2005. The Nikkei newspaper said the group reported some 90 million yen as office costs in the 10 years to 2005. In addition to his parents house, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said, Akagi also claimed that another political group operated out of his wife's parents' house and booked office expenses.
The second group has not been active in the past decade, the Mainichi said in its evening edition. Akagi, grandson of a former farm minister, denied the news reports. "There is no alteration, no booking of fictitious expenses," he told reporters, hours after the initial reports were released.
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