LDP lawmaker made inquiry into lecture by ex-vice ministry

March 19, 2018

Tokyo- A Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker asked the education ministry why a municipal school in Nagoya invited former vice education minister Kihei Maekawa to a class as a guest speaker in February, government sources have said.

After the inquiry from the House of Representatives lawmaker, the ministry sent emails to the education board of the central Japan city and sought explanations about the class in question, held on Feb. 16.

A local newspaper reported about the class the next day.

The education ministry has been under fire since media reports on Thursday that it questioned the junior high school on details of the class.

The ministry denied that its questioning was influenced by the request from the LDP lawmaker, a member of the ruling party's Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Division.

In the emails, the ministry asked the education board to reply to 26 questions. The ministry also asked the school to submit a recording of the class.

Citing Maekawa's background, including his resignation last year from the ministry's top administrative post to take the blame for the ministry's organizational efforts to illegally broker private-sector jobs for retiring officials, the ministry asked for specific and detailed reasons why the school invited him to the class.

Maekawa attracted attention last year when he testified before parliament against the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in connection with a cronyism scandal involving school operator Kake Educational Institution, headed by a friend of Abe.

At a parliamentary meeting Monday, Abe suggested that there was no problem with the ministry's questioning. He also said that he did not know details of the questioning.

Michiyasu Takahashi, chief of the ministry's Elementary and Secondary Education Bureau, told the meeting that the ministry questioned the Nagoya school based on its own decision.

Considering Maekawa's background, the ministry thought it necessary to confirm whether the class was conducted with appropriate educational factors, including the aim of the class and the reason for inviting him.

In a statement Monday, Maekawa said it is unusual for the government to meddle directly in a class at a specific school and that the questioning may amount to unjust control prohibited by the country's basic education law.

At a joint hearing by six opposition parties also on Monday, an education ministry official said that the ministry learned about the class based on an inquiry from outside the ministry, changing its previous explanation that it knew about the class from the local news report.

Still, the ministry side declined to say who made the inquiry. Jiji Press