Kake school plan’s clearing of gov’t-set conditions not examined: minister

November 16, 2017

Tokyo- Japanese education minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said Wednesday a government council that advised him to approve Kake Educational Institution's controversial plan to set up a new school of veterinary medicine did not examine whether the plan cleared the four government-set conditions for opening such a school in a national strategic special zone.

He clarified the process at a meeting of the House of Representatives education committee, after granting his approval on Tuesday to the school plan at the center of a favoritism scandal involving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Hayashi explained that Kake, headed by Kotaro Kake, a friend of Abe, applied for the education minister's approval to open the veterinary school, part of Okayama University of Science, after being designated by the Cabinet Office as the operator of such a school in the national strategic special zone in the city of Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, western Japan.

He said the Council for University Chartering and School Juridical Person thus was not responsible for checking whether the school plan was in line with the concept of the special zone reflected in the four government-set conditions in question.

The conditions include the provision of education that existing universities find difficult to offer.

At the Lower House committee meeting, Seiji Osaka of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition party in the lower chamber of parliament, claimed that the Kake school plan apparently did not clear the four conditions.

Osaka then demanded an explanation from the government side about who decided to pick Kake as the operator of a new veterinary school, based on what kind of information.

Yasumasa Nagasaka, parliamentary vice minister at the Cabinet Office, failed to give a clear answer to this question, only saying that discussions on Kake's school plan were held at the government agency where no one doubted it cleared the four conditions.

Another focus is whether Abe or his aides were involved in choosing Kake as the operator of the veterinary school.

Hayashi told the committee meeting, "I understand that there was no instruction from the prime minister." He also said such an instruction would have been inappropriate, stressing the validity of his approval of the plan by Kake.

Hiroshi Yoshimoto, director-general of the ministry's Higher Education Bureau, said the screening process at the council is "not something that can be influenced by opinions from the outside."

Kazunori Yamanoi of the Party of Hope, an opposition party, said the Japanese public was not satisfied with the explanations given by the government so far.

"Instead of drawing a curtain on the issue, we should summon the prime minister and the head of Kake for thorough deliberations (in parliament)," Yamanoi said.

Wednesday's deliberations were the first in parliament since the Oct. 22 Lower House election, in which Abe's ruling coalition achieved a landslide victory.

Before the committee meeting, the ruling and opposition parties had a dispute over their time slots for questioning. They eventually agreed to allot one hour and 20 minutes to the ruling camp and two hours and 40 minutes to the opposition camp.

Abe was absent from the meeting, due to an official trip abroad. Jiji Press