Yet another senior official of the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry has been arrested for corruption. This is an alarming situation.
The special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has arrested Kazuaki Kawabata, the Director General for International Affairs at the ministry, on suspicion of accepting bribes. After his arrest, Kawabata was dismissed from his post and transferred to the Minister's Secretariat.
Over about 20 months through March 2017, while Kawabata was assigned to work as a vice president at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), he allegedly was repeatedly wined and dined to the tune of about 1.4 million yen in total at restaurants and other venues by Koji Taniguchi, a former executive at a medical care consulting firm. Taniguchi has been rearrested on suspicion of giving bribes.
In exchange for Kawabata's arrangement for an astronaut to give a lecture at Tokyo Medical University, he was allegedly provided with this lavish treatment.
If these allegations are true, Kawabata's actions lacked any awareness of the norms expected of a government official.
Kawabata started his career at the former Science and Technology Agency, and served as head of the education ministry's Management and Coordination Division and chief of the Cultural Affairs Agency's Cultural Affairs Department. While on loan to JAXA, Kawabata was in charge of contracts, accounting and personnel matters. As director general for international affairs at the ministry, which is equivalent to director generals of other bureaus in the ministry, Kawabata was involved in international cooperation projects and other matters.
Taniguchi also has been implicated in a corruption scandal swirling around the ministry's support program for private universities. Taniguchi allegedly introduced Futoshi Sano, a former education ministry bureau chief who has since been indicted for taking bribes, to Tokyo Medical University officials, including the university's former Board of Regents Chairman Masahiko Usui, who has been indicted without arrest. Taniguchi has been indicted on a charge of helping Sano accept bribes in return for services.
Univ. officials also to blame
Sano also was wined and dined by Taniguchi. The special investigation squad must uncover the full picture of these cozy relationships. The ministry also should thoroughly examine whether there was any influence from them on the administration of the nation's science and technology and other fields.
In May 2017, Sano, who was head of the Minister's Secretariat at the ministry at the time, was asked by Usui to use his authority to help Tokyo Medical University get selected for the private university support program. In return, Sano allegedly had the university illicitly ensure that his son passed the entrance exam held in spring this year. Sano has denied the charge.
Usui and former university President Mamoru Suzuki have admitted they helped Sano's son unfairly pass the exam. These top university officials bear a grave responsibility for orchestrating this manipulation of the entrance exam process.
It is said that ten points were added to Sano's son's score in the test, the first step in the admission process, to ensure he passed. This underhanded act jolted public trust in entrance exams.
It has been confirmed that several other students taking entrance exams had their scores unfairly inflated. This cannot be overlooked. The special investigation squad has obtained lists of applicants who were granted backdoor admission to the university in the past. It appears this wrongdoing had become common practice at the university.
Although each university is given discretion over its admission methods, the ministry's university entrance exam guidelines call for the process to be conducted fairly. The entrance exams for Tokyo Medical University, where arbitrary interference occurred, can only be described as anything but fair.
The self-righteous administration of university affairs by some of its top officials is too much to tolerate. The university urgently needs to establish governance capacity, such as by reviewing the composition of its Board of Regents.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 27, 2018)
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