国际英语新闻:Abe's office involved in school-linked favoritism scandal: former government official

TOKYO, July 10 (Xinhua) -- A former Japanese government official on Monday said the office of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had influenced the government's selection of a veterinary school to be opened at a university run by a close friend of Abe's.

Former vice education minister Kihei Maekawa disclosed the information as he gave unsworn testimony before a Diet committee meeting at the parliament.

He told the committee during a special reconvened session that the selection process for a new veterinary department to be opened at the Okayama University of Science in Ehime Prefecture - a special economic zone - was vague and ambiguous and that the prime minister's office was pulling the strings.

"The prime minister's office worked behind the scenes and it was the Cabinet Office, not the prime minister's office, that was responsible for dealing with issues related to special economic zones," Maekawa told the committee, speaking as an unsworn witness summoned by the opposition camp.

Maekawa also referred to Kotaro Kake, a chairman of Kake Educational Institution, which runs the university, as being a close friend of the prime minister and underscored the fact that the institution failed to meet four necessary requirements to open the new schools, as required by the education ministry.

Maekawa explained how all other candidates were excluded from the selection process by new conditions being added that only Kake Educational Institution could meet.

He said that the entire selection process seemed to be rigged in favor of Kake Educational Institution being picked to open the new veterinary school, which would be the first of its kind in Japan in 50 years.

The committee meeting, however, was not attended by Abe, who is on a European tour following his participation in the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

Opposition parties had initially refused to hold the session without Abe in attendance, before agreeing to the special parliamentary session, and Monday reiterated their demands for Abe to attend a separate session upon his return to be grilled on the matter.

Abe is under the spotlight for using his influence to ensure the selection of his friend's institution to open the new school.

Maekawa said that last year a special advisor to the Cabinet at the time visited his office and requested that he accelerate procedures for the opening of the new school.

He also told the committee that he met an assistant to Abe, at the prime minister's office, when the selection of the strategic zone was underway, and was again pressurized to speed up procedures for the new school at that time.

Maekawa went on to tell the committee that he had seen a document showing the involvement of Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda in the influence-peddling scandal involving the prime minister.

Hagiuda said he met a senior official of the education ministry but maintained that he had no memory of making any remarks indicating his involvement or culpability.

Maekawa also referred to having seen evidential documents purportedly showing that Cabinet Office officials pressured the education ministry to select Kake Educational Institution.

The documents contain phrases from officials referring to the selection and expediting of construction of the new school to be operated by Kake as being "what the highest level of the prime minister's office has said" and "in line with the prime minister's wishes."

Despite Abe and other Cabinet members consistently denying any misconduct, it is the second such scandal involving a school operator with close links to the prime minister.

Suspicion was initially cast on Abe for his and his wife's questionable ties and reports of donations given to the Osaka-based nationalist school operator Moritomo Gakuen.

The operator was allowed to purchase state-owned land at a fraction of its appraisal value and Akie Abe was slated to be the honorary principle of the new elementary school built on the land.