Gov’t official denies reported remark linking Abe to vet school plan

April 10, 2018

Tokyo- A senior official of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on Tuesday denied his reported remark that Kake Educational Institution's plan to open a university veterinary medicine faculty in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, western Japan, is an issue related to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

In its Tuesday morning edition, the Asahi Shimbun, a major Japanese daily, reported that the Ehime prefectural government produced a document that is said to be a record of an April 2, 2015, meeting between the official, Tadao Yanase, then executive secretary to Abe, and officials of the prefecture and the Imabari city government at the prime minister's office in Tokyo.

The document, dated April 13, 2015, quoted Yanase as saying of the school plan, "This is an issue related to the prime minister," according to the report.

At a parliamentary deliberation in July last year, Yanase said that he did not remember meeting with officials of Imabari.

Yanase, now vice minister for international affairs, said in a statement Tuesday, "I have never met with officials of Ehime Prefecture or Imabari as far as I can remember."

"It would be impossible to talk about anything specific, such as, 'This is an issue related to the prime minister,' to outsiders," he added.

The animal medicine faculty plan has been at the center of alleged government favoritism as the head of Kake Educational Institution is a friend of the prime minister.

Yanase became executive secretary to Abe when the prime minister started his second tenure in December 2012. Yanase left the post in August 2015, when he became director-general of the Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau at the trade ministry.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference Tuesday that the government is not aware of the reported document.

He said he will have relevant government agencies check documents related to exchanges with Ehime Prefecture on the school plan.

An official of the Ehime prefectural government said that it is examining whether the document exists.

Education minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, regulatory reform minister Hiroshi Kajiyama and agriculture minister Ken Saito told their respective press conferences the same day that they have not confirmed the existence of the document about the meeting in question.

Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko told a press conference Tuesday that he would not comment on the report, saying what was reported happened when Yanase was executive secretary to the prime minister.

Meanwhile, parliamentary affairs chiefs of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and five other opposition parties at a meeting on Tuesday agreed to demand sworn testimony by Yanase before parliament. Jiji Press