The head of a controversial school operator in Osaka Prefecture said Thursday that he received a donation from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for a new elementary school that was to be built on cut-price land owned by the state.
Yasunori Kagoike, the head of school operator Moritomo Gakuen, told delegations from both ruling and opposition parties at the site of the would-be school that money for the school had been donated by the prime minister.
"Money donated by Abe was included in the funds for the school," Kagoike told the lawmakers on-site on Thursday.
Abe had previously been linked to the new school, with it supposed to have carried his name. Funds for the school were also allegedly raised using the prime minister's name.
However Abe, and his wife Akie who was to serve as the school's honorary principle, have both distanced themselves from the escalating debacle.
Abe, for his part, has said he had no knowledge of the matter and were the accusations to prove true would step down as prime minister and as a lawmaker.
Akie, meanwhile, stepped down as honorary principal of the school, prior to Moritomo Gakuen withdrawing is application for approval to open a new school.
A finance ministry official said Wednesday that the ministry now plans to demand that the operator demolish the new school buildings it has constructed on the state-owned land.
Moritomo Gakuen purchased the 8,770-square-meter piece of land last year in Osaka, for 134 million yen (1.18 million U.S. dollars), which is equivalent to just 14 percent of its appraisal price.
The operator will now have to repay subsidies it received and the prefecture will send investigators to the site next week to further look into the case.
The prefecture may also file a criminal complaint against the operator for listing erroneous construction costs in contracts submitted in connection with building the new school, Osaka officials also said recently.
Kagoike's claims that Abe had made a donation to the school were quickly rebuffed the same day by Japan's top government spokesperson, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who said that the prime minister had denied the allegation soon after it was made.
Moritomo Gakuen is also involved in an escalating scandal regarding the abuse of children and the dissemination of hate speech at the Tsukamoto Kindergarten which it operates.
The parents and guardians of former students at Tsukamoto Kindergarten along with their lawyer on Wednesday, submitted a request to the Office of Education in Osaka Prefecture to look into cases of their children being treated abusively and the kindergarten disseminating hate speech.
The petition submitted to local officials claims the kindergarten "often does things to the children verging on abuse, and uses discriminatory language toward Chinese people and others in its newsletters."
The parents, who held a press conference after submitting their request for a probe, said their children on several occasions were treated abusively after wetting their pants and were repeatedly and excessively scolded.
The parents also said their children were exposed to discriminatory language that could amount to racial discrimination or hate speech.
"We can't allow the kindergarten to get away with anything just because it's a private school," a representative of the group was quoted by local media as telling a press conference on the matter.
The controversy mired school operator has, aside from Abe, also been linked with Japan's Defense Minister Tomomi Inada, with demands from the main opposition Democratic Party for her to resign continuing Thursday.
The party's deputy Diet Affairs Chief Hirofumi Ryu said that Inada had provided a false explanation to the Diet regarding her links to a controversial school operator and that this should not be excused.
On Monday Inada told the Diet she did not provide legal advice to Kagoike, but on Tuesday she reversed her position saying that she did provide legal counsel to him and represented Moritomo Gakuen as a defense attorney.
Inada retracted her initial remarks saying she did in fact provided legal counsel to Kagoike in a civil lawsuit and court records also showed she represented Moritomo Gakuen as its defense lawyer in court.
Inada, a lawyer-turned-politician, said that her initial statement was not a lie and was based on her forgetting what had happened.
Ryu slammed Inada saying she was not fit to serve as the nation's defense minister and Inada's resignation was also called for by Democratic Party lawmaker Hideya Sugio, who also claimed she was not fit to stay in her post.
Ruling coalition party members have also taken aim at the defense minister, including Komeito Secretary General Yoshihisa Inoue and LDP Diet Affairs Chief Wataru Takeshita, who said she should have taken more care in her ministerial role and would henceforth be cautioned.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party, to which Abe and Inada belong, however, rejected calls for Kagoike to be summoned to the Diet to give testify.
Inada also came under fire Thursday and her resignation has also been called for over fresh allegations she was involved in a cover up involving the Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) destroying electronic data on its peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.
Electronic data on its peacekeeping mission was recently found to have been kept by the GSDF, although senior ministry officials have said they were ordered to delete the sensitive data.
Inada denied issuing such instructions on Thursday and while refusing to step down over the latest issue that could cause serious public mistrust, has said that it is her job as defense minister to launch an investigation and to remedy the situation.
