People wearing face masks sit in a train in Tokyo, Japan, on November 12. Photo: Xinhua

The Japanese government overstated construction orders data received from builders for years, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday, an admission that could dent credibility of official statistics.

It was not clear why the government started the practice of rewriting the data. It is also unclear how GDP figures may have been affected, though analysts expected any impact to be minimal, particularly as the builders involved were likely to be smaller firms.

"It is regrettable that such a thing has happened," Kishida said. "The government will examine as soon as possible what steps it can take to avoid such an incident from happening again."

He made the comment in a parliamentary session after the Asahi newspaper reported the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism had been "rewriting" data received from about 12,000 select companies since 2013 at a pace of about 10,000 entries per year.

Reuters