Political Intervention in Contract

News media in Japan focus on political intervention in the discounting contract over state-owned land in Osaka between ultra-right wing school corporation, Moritomo Gakuen, and Ministry of Finance. A lawmaker in House of Councillors, Yoshitada Konoike, confessed that he had contacts with the chief of Moritomo Gakuen, Yasunori Kagoike, for the contract, the fact which disseminated further doubts. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reiterates “I don’t know about it.”

According to the record in the office of Konoike, Kagoike visited Konoike’s office fifteen times from August 2013 to March 2016. A deputy of Kagoike told Konoike’s staff that Moritomo Gakuen was hoping to establish new elementary school in Osaka, followed by direct petitions from Kagoike himself. Kagoike requested Konoike’s support for purchasing state-owned land for building the school and obtaining license for opening the school from Osaka Prefectural Government.

The process for the purchase was a series of highly unusual treatments by Kinki Branch of Ministry of Finance, which controlled property of government. Moritomo demanded rental of the land at first, which was unusual in contracts between the government and private entity. Kagoike hoped Konoike to mediate for early conclusion for the purchase and discounting.

The record also indicates contacts between Konoike and Ministry of Finance. A record on October 15^th, 2013, describes that MoF Osaka Branch answered positive attitude for the purchase with condition of obtaining license from Osaka Government. Receiving guarantee for the purchase from Kagoike, Konoike got information from MoF that MoF and Osaka Government had been keeping close contacts on the issue. Konoike sent it to Kagoike.

Konoike revealed that there was a money offer as reward for the mediation from Kagoike. “I blamed him of his rude behavior and hurled the envelop to him,” said Konoike in the press conference on Wednesday. Although Kagoike explained it as shopping tickets, it is broadly doubted as an attempt of explicit bribe.

The contract for the land had special condition that Moritomo could purchase the land anytime it would like in the current price. Payment was decided to be a loan. MoF discounted the price from ¥956 million to ¥134 million. MoF paid Moritomo ¥132 million for decontamination of the land. Moritomo obtained the land with only ¥2 million after all.

Those unusual treatments were discussed in the Diet with participation of Abe. Abe changed his word for praising education of Moritomo to “I do not know about the principle of that school corporation.”