Maekawa denounces ministry’s meddling in lecture at school

March 22, 2018

Nagano- Former senior Japanese bureaucrat Kihei Maekawa on Wednesday strongly criticized the education ministry for making inquiries about a lecture he gave at a school.

"Sending such questions was unprecedented, and the act represented unjust control (by the government)," he said in a speech in the central Japan city of Nagano.

Maekawa, former vice education minister, gave the lecture at a municipal junior high school in Nagoya, the capital of Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, on Feb. 16. The ministry made inquiries about the lecture through an email sent to the Nagoya education board earlier this month.

It has also been revealed that two lawmakers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party asked the ministry about Maekawa's lecture. Before sending the email to the local education board, staff of the ministry showed the questions to one of the lawmakers and then revised part of the content.

What the LDP lawmakers did could be taken as an act intended to produce "withering or intimidating effects," Maekawa said, adding that it is impossible for education ministry bureaucrats to make such inquiries to schools based on their own decisions.

Maekawa last year resigned as vice education minister over the ministry's involvement in illegally brokering jobs to retiring senior officials.

Meanwhile, he has criticized the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over alleged favoritism for school operator Kake Educational Institution, headed by a friend of Abe. Jiji Press