Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday admitted that the government had overstated construction orders data for nearly a decade. The statement came after the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism had been “rewriting” data submitted by about 12,000 select construction firms since 2013 at a pace of around 10,000 entries annually.
The data is used to calculate Japan’s GDP, but analysts said the impact might be minimal as constructors involved were likely to be smaller firms. However, they warned that the overstatement had dented the credibility and reliability of Japan’s official statistics, which are widely used by economists and investors. It is not immediately clear why the government rewrote the data.
The Asahi Shimbun said the data rewriting breached Japan’s law and continued until March. However, Kishida said the government had made “improvements” to the figures since January 2020. Separately, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said the ministry had been instructed to investigate what led to the practice “as soon as possible.”
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Published on December 17, 2021 12:52 PM (GMT+8)Last Updated on December 17, 2021 12:52 PM (GMT+8)
