Another document suggests vet school plan’s link to Abe

April 14, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese agriculture minister Ken Saito on Friday released a document linked to a favoritism scandal involving Kake Educational Institution, which is led by a friend of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

In the paper, Tadao Yanase, then executive secretary to Abe, is quoted as saying that education group's plan to open a university faculty of animal medicine in a national strategic special zone in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, western Japan, was a "prime minister-related matter."

Currently, opposition parties are demanding that Yanase be summoned to parliament to give sworn testimony on the scandal.

"I'd like to respect (the opposition demand), if this is judged necessary," Yoshihisa Inoue, secretary-general of Komeito, the coalition partner of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, told a news conference.

"If there is an agreement, summoning (Yanase) to parliament is possible," Inoue also said.

The ruling camp will officially respond to the opposition request on Monday.

The document, drawn up by the Ehime prefectural government, is about a meeting on April 2, 2015, involving Yanase, officials from the Ehime prefectural and Imabari city governments and others.

Ehime Governor Tokihiro Nakamura expressed readiness on Friday to appear in parliament to speak on the document issue if there is a request for testimony by prefectural officials. "I will bear the brunt (of questioning) after interviews with relevant (prefectural) personnel," Nakamura told reporters in the prefectural capital of Matsuyama.

At a press conference in Tokyo the same day, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the Cabinet Office, the education ministry and the health ministry are still investigating whether similar documents exist.

"I've received reports that (such documents) have not been found so far" at the government agencies, he said.

Suga had instructed related government agencies to find a document created by the Ehime government on a meeting between Yanase and local government officials.

Yanase, currently vice minister for international affairs at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, told reporters at the prime minister's office that he "doesn't know" about the released document.

He also said he sticks to his earlier comment that as far as he can remember, he never met with officials of Ehime Prefecture or Imabari.

The latest document, bearing the date April 3, 2015, was released after a related report was made to the agriculture minister on Wednesday.

According to Saito, a ministry official transferred in May 2015 to a division in charge of activities involving the veterinarians law held the document after it was handed down from a predecessor. The predecessor has no memory of how the document was obtained, the minister said.

The official kept the document as personal data, not administrative paperwork, and did not pass it on to the next individual to hold the post.

According to the document, participants in the 2015 meeting also included Yutaka Fujiwara, then a senior official for regional revitalization at the Cabinet Office.

Fujiwara now serves as deputy director-general for infrastructure and systems exports at the industry ministry's Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau. Jiji Press