Scandal over political donations dogs Japan’s education minister
Hakubun Shimomura is the fifth member of Shinzo Abe's cabinet to come under scrutiny but he is resisting calls for his resignation
Hakubun Shimomura, the Japanese education minister and the man tasked with instilling "moral education" in the nation's youth, is becoming embroiled in a scandal allegedly involving shady political donations and Japan's underworld.
A minister since 2012 and a close ideological ally of PM Shinzo Abe, Shimomura and his finances have come under the scrutiny of Japanese media after similar red flags were raised over four other cabinet colleagues.
Two of those ministers, appointed after Abe won the general election in December, were quick to resign, although Shimomura and the government appear to be trying to ride this scandal out, said Jake Adelstein, author of and an expert on Japan's underworld groups.
"Shimomura has a great story he has used to further his political career," Adelstein said. "His father died when he was a child and he suffered great hardship, he wrote in his autobiography, working all through school until he started his own cram school.
"He also said that he built up his cram school business so he could afford to be a politician and change the education system in Japan, and one would think that would mean creating better schools and further education opportunities and so on," he added. "But all he seems to have done is to help the operators of other cram schools, which is a huge business in Japan."
The allegations of financial impropriety were first reported in magazine, which claimed Shimomura had received illegal political funds, including from Masahiro Toyokawa, a cram school owner with extensive links to the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest underworld group, Adelstein said.
Shimomura admitted accepting a single donation of ¥48,000 (HK$3,070) from a member of a yakuza group but claimed it had been returned. But the suggestion is that such tiny transactions are but the tip of the iceberg.
His story has wavered in recent days, however, prompting the newspaper to run a front-page story under the unequivocal headline "Shimomura: Liar".
"There are several problems here," said Adelstein. "Not only has he taken funds from an individual that the police have identified as a member of the yakuza, but Shimomura has regional support groups that are not registered as fund-raising organisations for his office and we have no idea how much money they have provided him with or where it has gone," he added.
Shimomura has been forced to concede that the organisations are run by friends in the education sector and it is widely understood that they are fellow operators of private cram schools.
As Adelstein points out, that means the minister of education would appear to have a vested interest in assisting private cram school operators, some with ties to the underworld. And the best way of encouraging parents to pay for private classes would be to have a poor state education system, he added.
Media reports have also stated that Shimomura has admitted asking his secretary to send email messages to his support groups requesting that they not comment on the allegations.
"Abe can't be very happy with all these allegations going on around his cabinet, but it looks to me as if they are trying to ride this one out," Adelstein commented. "I give them a 50-50 chance of doing that," he added.
