Recently Briefed on Ex-Aide’s Kake Meetings, Abe Claims

May 15, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe claimed Monday he knew only recently that Tadao Yanase, a former executive secretary to him, held meetings in 2015 with officials of school operator Kake Educational Institution, which is at the center of a favoritism scandal over an animal medicine faculty project.

At a meeting of the Budget Committee of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament, Abe said he was briefed on the meetings by Takaya Imai, his current executive secretary for political affairs, during Japan's Golden Week holiday period from late April to early May.

Yanase reported on the meetings to Imai in July last year, after the favoritism scandal came to light, but Imai did not inform Abe about the meetings at the time.

According to Abe, Imai has not contacted Yanase since July last year.

Last month, the Kake group, headed by a friend of Abe, opened a university faculty of veterinary medicine in a national strategic special deregulation zone in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, western Japan, the first such university department established in the country in 52 years.

Also at Monday's Budget Committee meeting, Abe said that he sincerely takes criticism that the cronyism scandals involving the Kake group and another school operator, Moritomo Gakuen, occurred as bureaucrats acted by excessively taking the unspoken wishes of the country's leader into consideration.

"We have to be even more careful if public concerns are growing as my administration lasts long," Abe said. Jiji Press