Abe hits back as support dives

TOKYO - Japan's embattled prime minister hit back on Monday at critics over a favoritism and cover-up scandal that has seen his popularity plunge and loosened his iron grip on power.

In a hotly awaited statement in parliament, Shinzo Abe stressed he had not ordered bureaucrats to alter documents relating to a controversial land sale as he comes under mounting pressure over the scandal.

"I did not direct that the documents be altered," he said.

"In fact, I didn't even know that they existed at all, so how could I have done that?"

The scandal surrounds the 2016 sale of state-owned land to a nationalist operator of schools who claims ties to Abe and his wife Akie.

The sale was clinched at a price well below market value amid allegations that the high-level connections helped grease the deal.

Versions of the original and doctored documents made public by opposition lawmakers appeared to show passing references to Abe were scrubbed, along with several references to his wife Akie and Finance Minister Taro Aso.

Aso has blamed the alterations on "some staff members" at the ministry.

But Jiro Yamaguchi, a politics professor at Hosei University in Tokyo, said the public was "not at all convinced" by this explanation.

"Why was the land sold at a discount price? Without any political pressure, this could never happen, and voters are angry about it," said Yamaguchi.

The prime minister repeated an apology, saying he "keenly felt" his responsibility over the scandal that has "shaken people's confidence in government administration".

The affair is hitting Abe's ratings hard, with a new poll in the Asahi Shimbun showing public support nose-diving by 13 percentage points from the previous month to 31 percent.

The figure is the lowest approval rating for Abe in the poll since his return to power at the end of 2012.

AFP - Reuters