Defying Responsibility of Explanation

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised detailed explanation on Kake Gakuen scandal, which he was doubted to have been involved in the governmental process of selection for establishing new veterinary school in the college run by his old friend. To implement that promise, Liberal Democratic Party accepted challenge of the opposite party to have discussion in a committee in House of Representatives on Tuesday. The government protected Abe without reasonable logic. LDP defended its President by spending their questioning time for accusing the opposite parties and news media.

The discussion was focused on four conditions set by the government to approve the application of Kake Gakuen to establish new veterinary school. They were detailed planning for raising veterinarians different from existing education, additional demand for veterinarian in the categories such as life science, difficulty of being dealt by existing veterinary schools in Japan, and consideration on recent demand for veterinarian. They were listed in Japan Rejuvenation Strategy in 2015.

The opposite parties asked whether the application of Kake Gakuen met those conditions. In the discussion of Council for College Establishment and Educational Corporation, an advisory body of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, or MEXT, it was indicated that the demand of veterinarian was not cleared. The opposite lawmakers argued that Kake Gakuen was selected without fulfilling the four conditions.

The answer of MEXT was basically irresponsible. “I would not deliver any comment on the discussion in the council,” told Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Cabinet Office, Yasumasa Nagasaka. “It was a conclusion of the council after the discussion based on a notion that the selection was properly made,” said Minister of MEXT, Yoshimasa Hayashi. There was no responsible answer from the government whether the selection had fulfilled necessary conditions.

Abe administration took advantage of overwhelming majority in the Diet for defending itself from accusation on the scandal by reducing opportunity of question for the opposite parties. While LDP introduced a rule in the committees that the share of question time between the opposite and the leading as 8 and 2, Abe administration changed it into 2 and 1 not to give the opposites enough time to accuse Abe. An LDP lawmaker, Hiroyuki Yoshiie, spent his time for accusing news media as repeating arbitral reporting and the opposite parties as criticism not on evidence but on conclusion. He did not ask how the selection process was going on, because he had been one of the staffs involved in the selection. This is the scandal that Abe has to overcome even with game changing.