TOKYO: Japan’s Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Monday he was returning a year’s salary after his ministry scrubbed public documents related to a cronyism scandal that has dogged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “I am voluntarily returning 12 months of my salary as a cabinet minister, as this problem has hurt public confidence in the finance ministry and the administration as a whole,” Taro Aso told reporters. Aso is the richest minister in Abe’s cabinet because of his family’s massive fortune made in the mining business. He also earns some 30 million yen ($274,000) a year as a cabinet minister. The penalized officials include Nobuhisa Sagawa, whose office helped alter key documents related to the controversial land sale.

Source: Manila Times June 04, 2018 08:26 UTC