Scandal Getting Mysterious

Discussion over a governmental decision of establishing new veterinary faculty in a college is getting mysterious. While a former Vice-Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, or MEXT, revealed his experience of receiving pressure from Shinzo Abe administration, Prime Minister Abe denied his involvement in the issue. No one in the administration is making effort to remove broad doubt among the people on political correctness of top leadership.

It was revealed that an officer with Cabinet Office urged a staff with MEXT for early approval of establishing a veterinary faculty in a college run by an educational corporation, Kake Gakuen, indicating political intention of top leadership in Abe administration. At least ten staffs with MEXT exchanged a memo about the pressure by e-mail. In a discussion of a committee in House of Representatives on Monday, a lawmaker with Democratic Party, Masato Imai, read out the names of those ten staffs on a copy of the e-mail and asked whether those staffs were working in the Ministry.

An officer with MEXT replied that there are staffs whose names matched what Imai raised. Former Vice-Minister of MEXT, Kihei Maekawa, also admitted that he received a copy of the e-mail. But, Minister of MEXT, Hirokazu Matsuno, has been reluctant to reconfirm the existence of such an e-mail. He rejected further investigation of the e-mail, with reason that origin or route of obtaining the document was not clear.

Abe tries hard in denying his involvement in the decision. “It was decided in a advisory meeting on national strategic district,” told Abe in House of Representatives, “and I did not issue such an order and there is no system for it.” Abe attributed to former administration led by Democratic Party of Japan. “It was Hatoyama administration that promoted the policy that had been dismissed in Fukuda or Aso administration,” insisted Abe.

In the discussion on Monday, some new facts were presented to the public. President of Kake Gakuen and a close friend of Abe, Kotaro Kake, joined Abe’s foreign trip for state visit to Myanmar in May 2013. Kake was on board in special aircraft for Prime Minister in a part of his itinerary. It is highly unusual that even a close friend of Prime Minister joins an official trip of the state.

Abe’s explanation of his close relationship with Kake is something naïve. “Because Kake Gakuen is doing good things, it is right for us to make joint efforts,” told Abe. Good thing for Abe must be obedience to his policy or ideology. Politics in Japan is getting subjective for Abe.