Japan's Abe cited documents to deny involvement by him or wife in land sale controversy

KEY POINTS

• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday that the documents disclosed this week related to a controversial discount land sale show there was no involvement by either him or his wife in the deal.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie Abe at Mar-a-Lago resort on February 10, 2017.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday that the documents disclosed this week related to a controversial discount land sale show there was no involvement by either him or his wife in the deal.

Abe and close ally Finance Minister Taro Aso are under pressure over the finance ministry's admission this week that it had doctored records related to the sale of state-owned land to a school operator with ties to Abe's wife, Akie.

"When you look at the documents even before they were altered, it is clear that my wife and I were not involved," Abe said in parliament.

Abe and Aso both told the upper house's budget committee on Wednesday that they had never instructed officials at the finance ministry to alter the documents.