First Lady’s Involvement in Scandal

Each House of Councillors or Representatives had summoning on Yasunori Kagoike, the head of an educational corporation Moritomo Gakuen, over the scandal of discounted purchase of state-owned land on Thursday. In the testimony with possible heavy penalty on false statement, Kagoike made it clear that he received ¥1 million from Japan’s First Lady, Akie Abe, as donation from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He also revealed that a staff in Prime Minister’s Official Residence in charge of First Lady mediated the request from Kagoike for establishing new elementary school to Ministry of Finance. New facts further complicated the scandal of the ultra-nationalist in education.

Kagoike said that he requested Akie Abe to extend ten-year contract of fixed-term land leasehold for the state-owned land in Osaka in October 2015. He received an answer from a staff of Prime Minister’s Official Residence through facsimile next month. The answer was indicating that the extension would not be realistic, while the government would keep on being interested in that issue. It also indicated to compensate for removing debris in the land with budget of FY 2016. The land was sold to Moritomo Gakuen with discounted price for removing the debris.

Prime Minister Abe has told that he would step down as Prime Minister and a lawmaker, if he or his wife had been involved in false disposal of state-owned land. Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, disseminated a copy of the facsimile to the press and denied Akie’s involvement in the details of the dialogue between Kagoike and the staff. Abe did not comment on it on Thursday, reiterating that he had already explained it.

Kagoike unequivocally testified that he received donation from Abe in September 2015. “After ejecting her staff from the principal’s room, Abe handed me ¥1 million and explained it to be a donation from Shinzo Abe in an one-on-one situation. Because it was highly honorable for me, I can clearly remember that,” told Kagoike. He also revealed that he gave Akie ¥100 thousand as a reward for speech in his school. Akie denied that exchange of money with Kagoike in her Facebook account. If Kagoike had made a lie, he would be punished by law. Which one is telling truth?

Recognition over the money contradicts between Akie and Kagoike. The opposite parties doubted Akie and required invitation of Akie to the Diet for testimony. As the leading parties tried to finish the scandal with empty testimony of Kagoike, doubts are rather increasing with new evidences. Abe administration is shaken by the protest of ultra-nationalist who thought he was betrayed by politicians.