Abe under fire in case of land sale

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his finance minister Taro Aso are under increasing pressure in connection with an alleged scandal about the sale of land from the state.

But Abe insisted on Wednesday that he and his wife were not involved in a deal about land sales at a sharp discount. 'If you look at the documents before they were changed, it is clear that my wife and I were not involved,' Abe told a budget committee of the upper house. Abe said that he would resign if evidence had been found. The alleged scandal prompted the opposition to demand the resignation of Aso.

The affair threatens the 63-year-old Abe in the most serious political crisis since his appointment in 2012 and his chance of a third term as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) damage. If he was elected leader of the LDP again in September, he would put that on the track to becoming the longest reigning Prime Minister of Japan.

Copies of documents released by the Ministry of Finance on Monday show that references to Abe, his wife and Aso about the land sale were removed from the school. The documents would contain a comment in which Akie Abe is cited as: 'This is a good country, so please continue. 'Yasunori Kagoike, the former head of the school and his wife remain in custody since they were arrested last July during the deal.

Meanwhile, the scandal has caused a stalemate in the parliament, with opposition parties boycotting the debate about next year's budget.