Tokyo- The recent leaks of Japanese education ministry internal documents related to the Kake Educational Institution has left Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's office alarmed over what may represent rebellious moves by some government officials.

The papers sparked a public uproar, because some of them indicated Abe's wish to realize without a delay a plan by the school operator, run by a friend of his, to open a university department of veterinary medicine in a special zone for deregulation.

The prime minister's office is worried that some officials may be "rebelling in spirit while pretending to be obedient," as goes a personal motto of former vice education minister Kihei Maekawa, who has blown the whistle on the Kake scandal.

Alarmed by the recent developments, the prime minister's office has announced a decision to review its administrative document management. But it is uncertain whether the measure will be effective.

Behind the leaks may be frustration among ministry officials with the prime minister's office, which has strengthened its grip on central government personnel through the authority to appoint senior officials, informed sources said.

Under the 2014 legislation for national public employee system reforms, the Abe government set up the Cabinet Bureau of Personnel Affairs to centralize the appointments of key officials at ministries and agencies.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga and other officials have supervised the appointments for some 600 senior posts through the bureau.

According to government sources, Suga checks the work, speech and behavior of each official subject to screening by the bureau. "Based on information collected via his own network, Suga has rejected candidates one by one," one of the sources said.

The strong grip has discouraged many central government officials from going against the will of the prime minister's office.

"We've become unable to do jobs that we could under our own authority in the past," a central government official complained.

Another official said, "We are scared under the surveillance of the prime minister's office."

The Kake scandal erupted amid these growing frustrations.

At first, Suga shrugged off leaked documents that the main opposition Democratic Party presented during Diet talks, calling them "dubious."

But Maekawa came forward to testify the authenticity of the documents. A current education ministry official followed by making similar comments in media interviews.

The government eventually had to admit the existence of the documents.

The prime minister's office has come to regard the education ministry as a force of resistance in the Kake scandal. Earlier this year, Maekawa and ministry officials were punished over illegal job-broking for outgoing and retired officials. (Jiji Press)