Japan’s largest opposition Democratic Party has demanded that the head of a school operator with ties to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s wife, Akie, appear before parliament to explain its purchase of government-owned land, it said on Wednesday.
TOKYO: Japan’s largest opposition Democratic Party has demanded that the head of a school operator with ties to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s wife, Akie, appear before parliament to explain its purchase of government-owned land, it said on Wednesday.
The operator, Moritomo Gakuen, last year bought an 8,770-square-metre plot of government-owned land for 134 million yen (US$1.2 million), or 14 percent of its appraisal price, to build a new elementary school, Kyodo news agency has reported.
Akie Abe is set to be honorary principal of the new school in Japan’s western region of Toyonaka, Moritomo Gakuen says on its website.
Prime Minister Abe told parliament on Friday neither he or his wife had been involved in the transaction.
Although the appraisal price of the land was 956 million yen, an estimated cost of 822 million yen for land cleanup activities was deducted from the sale price, Kyodo said.
