Indicted Ex-Moritomo Head, Wife Released on Bail

May 27, 2018

Osaka- Yasunori Kagoike, former head of school operator Moritomo Gakuen, and his wife, Junko, were released on bail on Friday, about 10 months after their arrest for alleged subsidy fraud.

Osaka District Court on Wednesday decided to release on bail Kagoike, 65, and his wife, 61, held at a detention center in the western Japan city of Osaka. The court on Friday rejected a petition by prosecutors against the decision.

Kagoike was released on bail of 8 million yen and the wife on 7 million yen, both paid the same day.

At a news conference after the release, Kagoike claimed that he senses a political motive behind their prolonged detention.

The couple was arrested at the end of July last year. Their lawyer requested their release in November last year, but this was rejected. The couple submitted a second request earlier this month.

The couple was indicted for cheating the state and the Osaka prefectural and city governments out of a total of 176 million yen in subsidies including for a project to build an elementary school in Toyonaka in the western prefecture.

Moritomo Gakuen bought a land plot for the school from the Finance Ministry at a heavy discount. Over the deal, favoritism by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration is suspected, after his wife, Akie, was once named honorary principal of the school. Jiji Press