A trial has begun in Osaka involving the widow of a former Finance Ministry official who committed suicide after being forced to falsify documents. The widow is seeking damages from the state and a former senior ministry official.

Akagi Toshio, who worked for the Finance Ministry's regional bureau in Osaka, killed himself in 2018. He had been pressured to falsify official documents pertaining to the sale of state-owned land to school operator Moritomo Gakuen at well below market value.

A court in Osaka has found a former school operator and his wife guilty of defrauding the central and local governments of school-related subsidies.

The former president of Moritomo Gakuen, Yasunori Kagoike, and his wife Junko were charged with defrauding the central government, Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City of some 170 million yen, or about 1.5 million dollars.