Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denied Friday that he or his wife Akie gave money or favorable treatment to an Osaka…
TOKYO —
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denied Friday that he or his wife Akie gave money or favorable treatment to an Osaka school operator at the center of a growing political scandal as alleged the previous day by the chief of the organization in sworn testimony before the Diet.
Opposition lawmakers argued that further investigation is needed into whether a government aide to Akie Abe was involved in the sale of a heavily discounted piece of state-owned land last year to the school operator, Moritomo Gakuen, which recently dropped its plan to open an elementary school on the site.
Yasunori Kagoike, head of Moritomo Gakuen, had produced under oath in the upper and lower house budget committees Thursday a document purporting to show that Akie Abe’s aide, Saeko Tani, made inquiries to the Finance Ministry about the plot of land in 2015 at his behest.
Kagoike also repeated his claim that Akie Abe gave him a donation of 1 million yen ($8,900) on the prime minister’s behalf for the purposes of building the elementary school.
Diet affairs chiefs from the Democratic Party, Japanese Communist Party, Liberal Party and Social Democratic Party agreed Friday to seek the summoning of Akie Abe and Osaka Gov Ichiro Matsui as further sworn witnesses.
But this would require the agreement of ruling coalition lawmakers, something the Abe administration’s top spokesman seemed to dismiss Friday.
“The prime minister is explaining (the situation) carefully,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference when asked about the oppositions’ plan.
Standing in the same room where Kagoike gave part of his testimony Thursday, Abe maintained on Friday that the content of the testimony had “made clear that there was no specific involvement by politicians in the sale of the state land or the accreditation of the elementary school.”
The prime minister’s office admitted Thursday that Tani had contacted the Finance Ministry for Kagoike about the plot of land in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, which Moritomo Gakuen was leasing from the state at the time.
