An end must be put to the fruitless debates continuing in the Diet about whether certain people met and whether they were involved in this issue. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Finance Ministry should fulfill their responsibility to explain their sides of this story and tidy up this situation.
The Ehime prefectural government has submitted to the House of Councillors an internal document pertaining to the establishment of a veterinary department at a university run by school operator Kake Educational Institution. The document said Kotaro Kake, the head of the institution, met with Abe in 2015 and explained that the operator wanted to set up a veterinary department. The document also said that Abe expressed support for Kake's plan.
This does not jibe with Abe's earlier explanation that he did not know about the plan until January 2017, when Kake Educational Institution was approved to operate the department in a national strategic special zone.
Abe has denied having the meeting in 2015. It has not been confirmed that Abe exercised his influence to facilitate the opening of the veterinary department. He must keep carefully explaining what happened in this process.
The Ehime prefectural government document was based on hearsay information, so its credibility is unclear. The document also stated that then Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato met with a Kake official. Kato has admitted this meeting did happen.
Opposition parties are demanding people involved in this matter give testimony in the Diet, but the ruling bloc is reluctant to take this step.
What remains unconvincing is that it appears the central government and the Ehime prefectural government, which invited the university to set up the department in the prefecture, are confronting each other. About 190 students were admitted to the veterinary department of Okayama University of Science, which opened this spring in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture. Consideration must be given to these students and steps taken to ensure this controversy does not interfere with their studies.
Don't neglect key bills
The prime minister's leadership also is required to resolve the scandal swirling around the sale of state-owned land to school operator Moritomo Gakuen.
The Finance Ministry has submitted to the Diet records of its negotiations with Moritomo. Last year, Nobuhisa Sagawa, who was the ministry's Financial Bureau director general and is a former National Tax Agency chief, said that these records had been discarded. It is said that documents relating to approval of the sale were intentionally altered or discarded within the bureau to match Sagawa's comments.
The ministry has shown extreme disdain for the Diet. They have significantly lacked a sense of discipline.
The process through which Moritomo strongly pressured the government to sell a plot of state-owned land at a discount of about 800 million yen also has become clearer.
There also is a record stating that a staff member assigned to help the prime minister's wife, Akie Abe, made an inquiry to the ministry about preferential treatment for Moritomo during the negotiations.
The ministry will soon release an investigative report into the altering and disposing of the documents. This report should shed light on any involvement by senior ministry officials and the backdrop of the negotiations.
In addition to Sagawa's resignation, former Administrative Vice Finance Minister Junichi Fukuda recently stepped down over allegations of sexual harassment. The ministry is facing an extraordinary situation in which two vice-minister-level posts are empty. This situation needs to be swiftly rectified.
There is less than one month until the current Diet session ends. Opposition parties must not use their attempts to unravel the truth of these scandals as an excuse to neglect discussions on issues such as bills related to work style reform and to approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, May 24, 2018)
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