No Answer to Scandal

In the last discussion over a scandal of selecting Kake Gakuen for establishing new veterinary faculty, Minister for Regional Revitalization, Kozo Yamamoto, denied reference of his staffs on Abe’s involvement in the scandal. While there had appeared the documents from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology that indicated political intervention of Prime Minister’s Official Residence, Abe administration looked like terminating the research on false relationship between Prime Minister and his old friend. Public question on reliability of politics is left behind, receiving no answer.

MEXT revealed nineteen documents which indicated political pressure from Cabinet Office on Thursday. Cabinet Office reluctantly began to investigate internal records about the meetings with MEXT staffs and announced its result on Friday. Yamamoto, in charge of the issue, told that he found four documents out of the nineteen, which included statements of Minister Yamamoto in some meetings. However, Yamamoto insisted that he did not confirmed any document which indicated reference of Cabinet Office staff to “intention of Prime Minister” or “the highest level of Prime Minister’s Official Residence.”

The result absolutely contradicted the findings in MEXT. The documents from MEXT also indicated involvement of Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, Koichi Hagiuda, in choosing Kake by presenting specific conditions. In the discussion in Budget Committee of House of Councillors on Friday, Hagiuda denied his order for the selection. Cabinet Office explained that the e-mail about Hagiuda’s involvement was sent without reconfirmation of the facts.

It is possible that Abe thought that Kake scandal would not lead to the collapse of his administration, because he would be able to escape his responsibility by attributing all the facts to voluntary decision of Ministry staffs. As expected, Cabinet Office completely denied Prime Minister’s political involvement in the issue. Realizing no fatal damage on his administration, Abe immediately apologized the delay of handling the scandal in the Diet discussion.

Newspapers critical to Abe seemed to have known it. It is a significant achievement, however, that the scandal caused deterioration of public image on Abe. Supporting rate of Abe Cabinet actually declined after the scandal was reported. If the power of Abe administration is eroded, it will affect his political agenda, including constitutional amendment. That may be enough for the opposite powers.