Abe Denies Meeting with Kake in 2015 over Vet School Plan

May 22, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday denied having had a meeting in February 2015 with the head of a school operator to discuss its veterinary school plan at the center of favoritism allegations against his administration.

"I didn't meet with the school head on the day that has been pointed out," Abe told reporters, referring to a newly disclosed document that says the prime minister had a meeting with Kotaro Kake on Feb. 25, 2015.

Kake, an old friend of Abe, is the head of Kake Educational Institution, which opened a veterinary school in a national strategic special deregulation zone in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, in April this year.

The new document, submitted by the Ehime prefectural government to Japan's parliament on Monday, noted that Abe was briefed on the veterinary school plan in the 2015 meeting with Kake.

Abe was quoted in the document as saying, "I like the idea of opening such a new veterinary school."

The new document has raised questions about Abe's previous parliamentary remarks that he learned of the veterinary school plan on Jan. 20, 2017, when it was approved.

Abe said Tuesday, "As I've said in parliament before, Kake had never told me about the veterinary school plan and I'd never told him about it."

At a press conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said, "There was no record of the school head's visit to the prime minister's office."

In a statement released on Monday, the Kake side denied the content of the document.

Health minister Katsunobu Kato on Tuesday admitted having met with a Kake official in February 2015 when he was serving as deputy chief cabinet secretary, as described in the document.

Kato told a press conference that the secretary-general of the school operator came to his office in Okayama Prefecture on Feb. 14, 2015.

Kato said the Kake official at the time told him that the group had been trying to open the veterinary school but that it had been unable to realize the aim.

The health minister said he made no report about the meeting to Abe.

Tadao Yanase, executive secretary to Abe at the time, told reporters that he has no memory of accompanying Abe to the 2015 meeting.

"I've never even heard about such a meeting," said Yanase, now vice minister for international affairs at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

The secretaries-general of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and four other opposition parties agreed to seek sworn parliamentary testimonies by Kake and Yanase and unsworn testimony by Ehime Governor Tokihiro Nakamura.

The demands were conveyed to Hiroshi Moriyama, parliamentary affairs chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, by his CDPJ counterpart, Kiyomi Tsujimoto.

"We've entered a crucial stage where whether Abe should stay on as prime minister is called into question," CDPJ Secretary-General Tetsuro Fukuyama told a press conference.

Referring to Abe's denial of what was described in the document, Fukuyama said, "We can't trust any remarks by the prime minister, who has repeatedly told lies." Jiji Press