Imabari Mayor Suggests Abe-Kake Meeting in Feb. 2015

May 27, 2018

Imabari, Ehime Pref.- The mayor of a western Japan city said Friday an official of the city has reported to him that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the head of a private school operator at the center of alleged central government favoritism over an animal medicine faculty project met in February 2015.

Mayor Ryoji Kan of Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, made the remark in talks with reporters at the municipal government building, while failing to mention a specific date for the reported meeting between Abe and Kotaro Kake, who runs Kake Educational Institution and is an old friend of the prime minister.

Kake Educational Institution's project called for setting up a university faculty of veterinary medicine in a national strategic special deregulation zone in Imabari. The faculty opened last month as the first such university department established in Japan in 52 years.

The mayor's remark came after the Ehime prefectural government submitted to the Diet, Japan's parliament, on Monday a document saying that Abe and the school operator held a meeting on Feb. 25, 2015. The document quoted the prime minister as saying at the meeting that it is a good idea to establish a new university faculty of veterinary medicine.

In response, Abe denied on Tuesday that he met with the school operator chief on the day cited in the document.

Abe has said that he knew of Kake Educational Institution's project on Jan. 20, 2017, when it was formally approved by the central government. Jiji Press