Abe battles scandal on two fronts as questions swirl

Uh-oh! Abe can't protect that dolt Inada much longer unless he wants to further go down with the ship.

Ask the right questions! Why is he giving his personal money to a school that prints hate messages to other asians and then distributes it. Worse yet, they teach racism and hatred to small children. Abe, why are you supporting this with cash? Do you agree that we should teach kidz to hate Chinese and Koreans? If so, then say so live on TV.

If these people would just tell the truth from the outset of the shady revelations things wouldn't be as bad. But they keep saying things like "I can't remember" and "I don't know," which makes them sound even more guilty than what they probably are.

In the latest twist to the ballooning school scandal, Japan’s top spokesman said on Friday Abe’s wife, Akie, had not personally donated money to Moritomo Gakuen, a school operator in Osaka, western Japan.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga had said on Thursday Abe had not donated money either himself or through a third party including his wife.

Reading between the lines, are we to assume, then, that the PM did donate funds?

Akie went one step further, putting in this cringeworthy appearance at Moritomo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64dKINV2B6g

Wow, the unchi has hit the senpuuki.

How much does anyone want to bet that Abe is literally starting to feel ill!

Who cares, all the rich here donate money to the top universities to accept their children that can't get the required grades and push out he honest ones that did.

I can hear it now like so many times before, they are about to trot of the ""SECRETARY"" that will be the fall guy.

These secretary's who are always men are in fact what would be better termed as BAG MEN, receipt forgers, account manipulators.

There are used to carry out the dirty work for their bosses, like the pm & his mrs. BUT they set it up so they carry all these ca$h exchanges but have ""plausible"" deniability for the top folks

Watch its coming any time now!

North korea, any time now!!

Who cares, all the rich here donate money to the top universities to accept their children that can't get the required grades and push out he honest ones that did.

That used to be the case during the bubble years and before but definitely NOT today. Anyway this is a private preschool and private elementary school, which need private donations to survive.

It's not like Abe has any kids that are going into ES either.....

If there was nothing to hide, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe/LDP Government would have instigated an inquiry......

If Yasunori Kagoike is shameless enough to tap MP's for public money, Yasunori Kagoike will not hesitate to produce the evidence to associate both Prime Minster Shinzo Abe and First lady Akie Abe to donations for the building of this school. The reasoning behind why Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga is choosing his words extremely carefully.

Moritomo Gakuen chief asks lawmakers for public money for school.....

<http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20170317/p2a/00m/0na/013000c >

Educator

Obviously you believe him. I do not. I'll stand by my statement and I'd ask him again...the right questions (according to me). They are obviously involved, I'm not falling for the fine print.

In the latest twist to the ballooning school scandal, Japan’s top spokesman said on Friday Abe’s wife, Akie, had not personally donated money to Moritomo Gakuen, a school operator in Osaka, western Japan.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga had said on Thursday Abe had not donated money either himself or through a third party including his wife.*

The right question to ask is 'Did Abe or his wife or any person or business or agents directly or indirectly receive benefits that may or may not include 'requirements' how pupils were taught and the school policy targeted to that end; to benefit financially or in kind or politically or in any other way by those defined within the question?'

That could include that his wife was about to take up a position with the school but did not when the scandal broke. Why not If she was doing nothing wrong? On the other hand why accept it in the first place. An old saying 'Ceasar;s wife must be above suspicion'. It does not help if 'Ceasar' is not above it either. A protoge female defence minister also facing questions.

Right now Abe is strutting around the world making deals he might not be in a position to carry out by the time they come to fruition.

We live in interesting times...when few 'leaders' are above suspicion and those ready to replace them no sweeter!

Educator

I stand by my original statement. As a Japanese citizen and a resident of Toyonaka-shi, I can think what I want based on what I've heard, and I'm not getting my news from English websites only. I have no idea how you know they aren't involved in the way that I'm thinking. Do you know what I'm thinking? I am saying they knowingly supported (financially and in name backing) a nationalist enterprise that is now having a racist controversy.

Went into South Sudan to show the whole world how mighty Japan is back! Lmao. The only thing they can try to save now is their faces.

He has said he would resign if evidence to the contrary were found.

..and then go to prison.

We may hope. It seems Kagoike is going to testify. About to get interesting. Time to get the popcorn ready

Japan Times reports that Kagoike has been summoned to the Diet to testify under oath to both chambers. Kagoike has already said that Mizuho no Kuni received 1 million Yen under Abe's name. So if he says otherwise to the Diet, he risks perjury. I am willing to bet that Kagoike will confirm this donation under oath because he's not willing to take one for the team and go down alone. But that may be more a reflection of my distaste of the LDP, because the thought of Abe and his nationalism lording over it all through 2021 is too disturbing.

Abe tried and failed his first time to take Japan toward some sort of warped "beautiful country" that looked wistfully back to the past and wanted to bring it back. He's tried this time with a "new country" which is just a rehashing of what he tried to start a decade ago. Five years is more than enough. It's time for Abe to go.

Educator60MAR. 18, 2017 - 01:45AM JST

As I've said before, I dislike Abe and would be happy to see him go but I don't believe it's right to consider him guilty of anything without some convincing evidence.

We really ought to presume people are innocent until proven guilty, I just find that with LDP politicians I tend to do the opposite. I'm afraid with people like Shinzo Abe, when they're accused of anything my first inclination is to believe it. Especially in this case where until not so long ago he couldn't praise Moritomo Gakuen or Yasunori Kagoike highly enough.

Educator60MAR. 18, 2017 - 07:11PM JST

Simon Foston, "We really ought to presume people are innocent until proven guilty, I just find that with LDP politicians I tend to do the opposite. "

I understand the emotional urge to automatically assume the LDP members are all rotten to the core.

I said I tend to assume they're guilty until proven innocent. That doesn't mean I do so in every case. And given that I don't recall a single scandal an LDP member was implicated in but turned out to be innocent of any wrongdoing, I'd say it's more of an objective response based on precedent than an "emotional urge."

I certainly don't want to be considered guilty of something I haven't done just because someone thinks I look suspicious or because of my political beliefs, or because some slineball started a rumor about me, "just because",

That's not why I think Abe's more than likely involved. As I said, it's the history of his relationship with Moritomo Gakuen up to the time of the scandal breaking, his past record of behaviour which I shall politely refer to as disingenuous, and the endemic corruption, cronyism and nepotism inherent in the political culture that Abe and his forebears, especially his dear departed (vile, debauched) grandpa, helped to create.

Educator60MAR. 19, 2017 - 08:29AM JST

"As I said, it's the history of his relationship with Moritomo Gakuen up to the time of the scandal breaking"

Which I believe is not exactly clear yet. There's a lot of innuendo but what exactly was that relationship?

We don't have all the facts, true, but what we do know is that Akie Abe said her husband thought Moritomo Gakuen's education policy was "excellent," and he said himself that Kagoike had "an ideology similar to mine." He also admitted that he'd been planning to make a speech at the school. Then there's the matter of Kagoike wanting to name the school after him and getting the kids to cheer him. So I don't know exactly what the relationship was, but the term "pretty cosy" immediately springs to mind.

Educator60MAR. 19, 2017 - 12:25PM JST

"what we do know is that Akie Abe said her husband thought Moritomo Gakuen's education policy was "excellent," "

Wasn't that the other way around? Abe said his wife told him it was excellent.

No, apparently she said that when she visited the kindergarten.

"Akie Abe’s connections to Moritomo run deeper than her short-lived role as honorary principal. Footage of a visit she made to its sister kindergarten in 2015 shows her telling parents: “My husband also thinks that education policy here is excellent.”" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/24/shinzo-abe-wife-akie-under-pressure-ties-ultra-nationalist-school-japan

Looks like they were both admirers, then.

I believe he stated he had said he'd consider doing a speech if the opportunity arose. It's a subtle nuance maybe but there's a difference between actively planning and saying "sure if I have a chance I'd be happy to do a speech".

Yes, a bit too subtle to dispel the notion that there's a much closer link than I would expect between the prime minister and a private school operator who isn't based in Tokyo or Yamaguchi.

Abe said he rejected the idea of naming the school after himself and was unaware that the school used his name in raising donations. I haven't heard that Abe was aware of or approved of the cheering.

Unaware? Is that right?

"Abe reiterated that he had declined to allow his name to be used when Moritomo Gakuen solicited donations for what it called the "Abe Shinzo Memorial Elementary School"." http://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-politics-abe-idUSKBN16308L

You see, I get the idea from reading reports like that he knew exactly what was going on. He says he told them not to use his name but that would make it all the more strange that he would even consider making a speech at the school, wouldn't it? It rather looks to me as if Abe was actually fine with his name being used for whatever purposes by Nippon Kaigi people like Kagoike, because he certainly doesn't appear to have tried very hard to get him to cease and desist his inappropriate behaviour. If someone had disrespected my wishes in such a fashion, making a speech at their school is certainly not the kind of action I'd be thinking about taking.

I haven't heard that Abe was aware of or approved of the cheering.

He said he didn't approve of it but that was some time after the fact when he didn't have much of a choice. What he might have thought had it totally escaped media scrutiny is anyone's guess.

It's still not a crime to share ideology.

Um, whoever said it was? I just took Abe's comments as an indicator of the closeness of this particular relationship.

Educator60MAR. 19, 2017 - 04:31PM JST

""Unaware? Is that right?""

In the Diet he appeared to have only just recently have learned that his name was used on the donation forms and literature.

"Appeared" being the key word there.

And he said it was unacceptable.

There wasn't much else he could say at that point, was there?

""He says he told them not to use his name but that would make it all the more strange that he would even consider making a speech at the school, wouldn't it?"

Not if the order is the reverse of the way you've written it. I would also think if he had said, no, he didn't want the school to be named after himself, that normally one would think that would be the end of it.

That's a couple of big "ifs". I see no reason to suppose that the order is the reverse, or that he did actually say no. It's Abe's word against Kagoike's, and I don't place very much value on Abe's word. I mean, it's still strange that he's been clearly trying to distance himself from Moritomo Gakuen and yet admitted to considering making a speech at their facilities.

Incidentally, when DID he tell them not use his name for the school? After Moritomo Gakuen became front page news or before?

Why would he be expected to assume Kagoike would go against his wishes and use his name unauthorized?

That's assuming Abe's telling the truth about telling Kagoike not to use his name for fundraising purposes. The fact that Kagoike didn't stop would suggest that either Abe was not especially insistent or didn't say anything at all.

I also don't know at what point he became aware of the cheering aspect so I'm not inclined to criticize him for that until I know.

If Abe wasn't aware of it he's clearly an oblivious imbecile or just didn't mind enough what went on at Tsukamoto Kindergarten to look into it properly. I don't think he's an oblivious imbecile.

Educator60MAR. 20, 2017 - 09:39AM JST

"Appeared" being the key word there."

But is there any evidence that he knew about it?

Can he prove that he didn't? If not it all comes down to whether you believe him or not.

I certainly wouldn't put more value on Kagoike's compared to Abe.

You certainly do appear to be more than ready to give Abe the benefit of the doubt.

"That's a couple of big "ifs". "

I disagree. I haven't seen any news or evidence that the order is as you wrote.

Have you seen any news or evidence that it is not? If not aren't you being a bit quick to disagree?

Or that Kagoike is a real piece of work and that Abe was unaware of what was happening, not because he's an imvecile or didn't mind but because he's a busy person with bigger things to deal with and (perhaps naively) assumed that Kagoike was a normal enough person to desist when told "no".

I might see things that way if I were absolutely determined to see Abe in a positive light in spite of everything I know about him, the LDP and its culture of sleaze and corruption. But I'm not so I don't.