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| Maekawa Testifies Before The Diet |
A former top education ministry bureaucrat told the Diet Monday that
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's office had significant influence over the
government's decision to approve a new department at a university run by
his friend.
Kihei Maekawa testified, "Prime Minister Abe ordered that the school be given special approval in veterinary medicine. He knew and his aids went to the Education Ministry and got special approval."
Abe's aide was clearly involved in the approval process for the
veterinary department at the Okayama University of Science in a
government-designated special economic zone, said Maekawa, former
vice minister of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology.
Attending as an unsworn witness, Maekawa told a Diet committee, "The
prime minister's office worked behind the scenes," adding that the
Cabinet Office, and the prime minister's office, was responsible for
dealing with issues related to special economic zones.
Kotaro Kake, chairman of Kake Educational Institution, which runs the
university, is known as a close friend of the prime minister.
Abe's Liberal Democratic Party agreed to briefly reopen parliament
for committee deliberations, as requested by opposition parties.
But the deliberations were held when Abe was away for a tour of
European countries including participation in the Group of 20 summit in
Hamburg, prompting opposition parties' demand for his attendance at a
separate parliament session.
Appearing in the joint session of the House of Representatives'
Cabinet affairs and education committees, Maekawa reiterated that the
review process was "unclear" and "unfair," citing insufficient
discussion of whether Kake Educational Institution met conditions to
launch Japan's first vet school in half a century.
During a similar session in the House of Councillors in the
afternoon, the former top bureaucrat also said Hiroto Izumi, Abe's
assistant, urged him in September and October last year to speed up the
procedure, saying he was making the request on behalf of Abe "because
the prime minister cannot say it by himself."
Abe has come under fire over suspicions he influenced the approval
process for the opening of the new department at the university in
Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, western Japan.
Such suspicions have grown after the revelation of documents
indicating that officials of the Cabinet Office pressured the education
ministry ahead of the selection of Kake.
Maekawa has said he remembers having seen some of the documents while he was still working at the ministry.
The documents, which Maekawa insists are authentic, state the
officials employed phrases such as "what the highest level of the prime
minister's office has said" and "in line with the prime minister's
wishes." Abe and other Cabinet members have repeatedly denied
wrongdoings.
It is the second scandal related to school operators close to Abe. He
has drawn suspicion over his dubious ties with private school operator
Moritomo Gakuen, which purchased state-owned land in Osaka at a
dramatically reduced price. Abe's wife Akie was named honorary principal
of the elementary school that Moritomo planned to open at the site.
Maekawa resigned in January to take responsibility for a scandal in
which the ministry systematically secured post-retirement jobs for its
bureaucrats.
Kyodo
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