The Budget Committee of House of
Representatives held an off-session meeting to discuss Kake Gakuen scandal, in
which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was doubted as having involved in the process
of choosing his friend’s college for new veterinary school. Without hard
evidence of ordering it, Abe denied his involvement in the scandal. His
bureaucratic staffs followed Abe, reiterating “I can’t remember anything.” Humbleness
for saying truth could not find in the words of politicians and bureaucrats.
Former Vice-minister of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology, Kihei Maekawa, has testified that he received
pressure last fall from an Advisor to Prime Minister, Hiroto Izumi, which was a
request of choosing Kake Gakuen along with intention of Abe. That brought broad
doubt that the choice had been determined before the official process of
selection.
To a question when he realized the plan of
Kake Gakuen to establish new veterinary school in Imabari, Ehime, Abe answered
that it had been January 20th of this year, the day when Conference
of National Strategic Special District decided to pick Kake. The lawmakers of
opposite parties revealed a number of meetings between Abe and Chairman Kotaro
Kake with golf or dinner.
It was highly unlikely that Abe and Kake
did not talk about new veterinary school in those meetings. But Abe insisted
that they had not talked concretely about veterinary school, while he had heard
about Kake’s ambition to establish new faculties. Abe refused requests from the
opposite parties to invite Kake for a testimony in the Committee.
Izumi could not remember what he had said
to Maekawa in a meeting on September 9th. Although Maekawa revealed
that Izumi told him on behalf of Prime Minister, Izumi explained that he simply
asked Maekawa an appropriate handling as Vice-Minister. “If I had told an
extreme story, I could have remembered it. Because I do not have that memory, I
have not say that,” told Izumi. This is a typical syllogism of Japanese
bureaucrats. What the people want to know is not the logic of doing, or not
doing, but whether Izumi actually did that or not.
Another lawmaker asked former Advisor to
Prime Minister, Tadao Yanase, about whether he had met with a staff of City of
Imabari in 2015 and told that the process was working preferable for Imabari.
Yanase repeated “There is no such memory of meeting him.” Then, Yanase made detailed
explanation, “I have no memory of meeting that person, because I met many
persons as I was in charge of many issues.” This is not about whether Yanase met
him, but what he said to him. Bureaucrats always escape from substance in front
of public eyes.
No comments:
Post a Comment