Abe used influence to approve department in school owned by friend, ex-official tells lawmakers

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Former top bureaucrat in the education ministry Kihei Maekawa arrives at a House of Representatives committee meeting in Tokyo on July 10, 2017, to testify as an unsworn witness on allegations that Shinzo Abe used his power as prime minister to help a close friend open a university department. Photo: Kyodo

Published: 4:33pm, 10 Jul 2017Updated: 4:33pm, 10 Jul 2017

A former top education ministry bureaucrat told a Diet committee meeting on Monday that the office of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had significant influence over the government’s decision to approve a new department at a university run by his friend.

Abe’s aide was clearly involved in the approval process for the veterinary department at the Okayama University of Science in a government-designated special economic zone, said Kihei Maekawa, former vice-minister of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

“The prime minister’s office worked behind the scenes,” he told the committee, which he attended as an unsworn witness called by opposition parties. The Cabinet Office, not the prime minister’s office, was responsible for dealing with issues related to special economic zones, he added

Kihei Maekawa speaking at the House of Representatives committee meeting. Photo: Kyodo

Kotaro Kake, chairman of Kake Educational Institution, which runs the university, is known as a close friend of the prime minister.

Appearing in the joint session of the House of Representatives’ cabinet affairs and education committees, Maekawa reiterated that the review process was “unclear” and “unfair”, citing insufficient discussion about whether Kake Educational Institution met conditions to launch Japan’s first vet school in half a century.