Scandal-hit vet faculty holds entrance ceremony

April 4, 2018

Imabari, Ehime Pref.- An entrance ceremony was held on Tuesday for Okayama University of Science's veterinary medicine faculty, which is at the center of a favoritism scandal involving the school's operator and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

In a speech, Kotaro Kake, head of Kake Educational Institution, the university's operator, and a close friend of Abe, told some 180 newly enrolled students that he want them to "make history as veterinary medicine pioneers" in the Shikoku region, western Japan.

The school opened in a special national deregulation zone in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, on Sunday, marking the first establishment of an animal medicine faculty in the country in 52 years, since Kitasato University set up the School of Veterinary Medicine in 1966.

Kake also said the faculty received "far more applicants than expected," praising his institution's "long efforts" to promote it.

Asami Sasaki, 18, who represented the new students, said, "I will work every day toward realizing an education that will be appreciated by the region and can be promoted to the world."

Yasuhiro Yoshikawa, dean of the department, told reporters after the ceremony that he thanks the government for "breaking rock-solid regulations" on the opening of an animal medicine school.

The education ministry holds the basic policy of not permitting a new veterinary medicine faculty to prevent an oversupply of vets.

But under its special deregulation zone program, the Abe administration decided to approve as an exceptional case the opening of one such faculty in fiscal 2018. Following the decision, the Kake institution was picked as the operator of the new faculty in January last year. The ministry gave the go-ahead in November.

The opposition camp has been claiming that discussions to pick the veterinary medicine school operator proceeded with Kake in mind. Jiji Press