Most Japanese think PM Abe bears responsibility for scandal: polls

TOKYO: Most Japanese think Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bears some responsibility for altered documents at the centre of suspicions of a cover-up linked to cronyism, according to opinion polls on Sunday, with one showing his support falling to the lowest of his tenure.

In his worst crisis since taking office in 2012, Abe and Finance Minister Taro Aso have been under fire since the finance ministry said on March 12 it had altered records relating to a discounted sale of state-owned land to school operator Moritomo Gakuen, which had ties to Abe´s wife, Akie.

References to Abe, his wife, and Aso were removed from the finance ministry´s records of the sale, copies of documents released by the ministry showed.Both men have denied any wrongdoing in the affair.But 66.1 percent of respondents to a poll conducted by Kyodo news agency on Saturday and Sunday said they felt the premier had some responsibility for the altered documents.

Only 25.8 percent said they thought he didn´t do. A Mainichi Shimbun poll similarly found 68 percent believe Abe bears responsibility. The newspaper didn´t say how many disagreed. Protesters have flocked to the streets by the PM´s office every night since the ministry admitted altering the documents, with some 2,000 on Friday calling for Abe and Aso to resign. A Nippon TV poll found Abe’s support crumbling some 14 percentage points from last month to 30 percent, the lowest for that poll in Abe’s more than five years in office and less than half the peak of 66 percent in April 2013, when his easy-money “Abenomics” policies were dramatically starting to lift Japan out of decades of deflation.