Indicted Ex-Moritomo Chief, Wife to Be Freed on Bail

May 23, 2018

Osaka- Osaka District Court decided Wednesday to free on bail a former head of school operator Moritomo Gakuen and his wife, both under indictment for alleged subsidy fraud.

The nationalist school operator is at the center of a high-profile favoritism scandal involving the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

According to the court decision, the former Moritomo Gakuen chief, Yasunori Kagoike, 65, will be released on bail of 8 million yen, and wife Junko, 61, on 7 million yen.

The couple has been held in a detention center in the western Japan city since being arrested in July last year. After their first petition for release on bail, filed in November, was rejected, they submitted a second request in May.

They will stand trial on charges of cheating the national, prefectural and city governments out of 176 million yen in subsidies, including for opening an elementary school in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture.

Moritomo Gakuen acquired a state-owned land plot for the planned school at a discount of some 800 million yen from the appraisal value, raising suspicion that behind the special deal was the prime minister's wife, Akie, once appointed honorary principal of the school.

Prior to the couple's arrest, Kagoike was summoned to give sworn testimony before the Diet in March 2017. He said that he had consulted with the prime minister's wife about the school plan and was surprised at the huge discount, made by the Finance Ministry. Jiji Press