Japan finance minister takes pay cut, officials punished
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso has taken a voluntary one-year salary cut and 20 other officials were penalized for tampering with documents related to a government property sale linked to the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wife.
The Finance Ministry has acknowledged tampering with hundreds of pages of documents related to the 2016 land sale to a school where Akie Abe briefly held an honorary position.
Aso apologized Monday over the tampering by lower level officials, but said Akie Abe was not directly involved.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Abe has denied any wrongdoing by him or his wife. The tampering with the documents, including removing references to his wife, took place in February-April 2017. It was done to ensure the documents matched explanations by Abe to parliament during questioning about the scandal.