Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday instructed his ministers to draw up measures to prevent any recurrence of the improper handling of official documents following a series of scandals that have damaged public confidence in the government.
"To secure proper management of public documents, the government will come together to thoroughly conduct a necessary review," Abe said in a meeting of relevant ministers, stressing the need to "sincerely reflect on" the scandals, which involved the falsification and cover-up of documents by two ministries.
The instruction comes a day after the Finance Ministry released the results of its internal investigation into the falsification of documents on the heavily discounted 2016 sale of state land in Osaka Prefecture to Moritomo Gakuen, a school operator with ties to Abe's wife, Akie.