Ex-bureaucrat alleges Abe office's involvement in new school approval

Is this enough to get Abe to resign? I don't think so. The previous incarnation of Abe, maybe, but he knows now that he can do almost anything, and the faithful will support him. And for those of you thinking that Aso Taro will step in if Abe resigns, I'm sure it will be Shigeru Ishiba, and I have no idea what kind of a leader he will be.

He's not going to resign, but this is definitely the beginning of the end. Hopefully, not just of this clown, but of the whole LDP

Abe will continue to deny everything. Until there is paperwork that ties him directly to the allegations he will continue to act like he knows nothing and deems it below him to respond.

Hopefully, not just of this clown, but of the whole LDP

I dont think anyone wants to see the end of the LDP. The power vacuum that would occur would be chaos for the country.

Abe belongs to the Nippon Kaigi, an ultra right wing organisation that has the mission of denying Japanese atrocitities and rewriting history. This is why he has been quietly helping other members of this group financially. Wikipedia has this to say:

Nippon Kaigi believes that "Japan should be applauded for liberating much of East Asia from Western colonial powers; that the 1946–1948 Tokyo War Crimes tribunals were illegitimate; and that killings by Imperial Japanese troops during the 1937 Nanjing massacre were exaggerated or fabricated".[2][13] The group vigorously defends Japan's claim in its territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands with China, and denies that Japan forced the "comfort women" into sexual slavery during World War II.[2] Nippon Kaigi fights against feminism, LGBT rights, and the 1999 Gender Equality Law.[11]

Don't worry! The furnaces are already burning and nothing will stick to this slimy fella.

Putting the scandal involving Abe aside, listening to broadcasting, I felt Abe's stance is not necessarily wrong. Maekawa thinks a veterinary school is not necessary to build newly. Shortage of veterinary doctors will be covered by increasing students of the existing schools. He also said to gather enough teaching staff in making a new school is very difficult. I felt his thinking is backward.

Why is his friend voluntarily testifying unsworn?

He is probably doing Abe's bidding here and saying what he's saying at this timing, so that he can prop up his story for later.

History repeating itself here. Abe spent the summer of 2007 holed up in the Kantei with a couple of advisors as his health declined and his administration collapsed. The only people who knew what was happening were his inner circle and the NSA, who had the phones bugged. He eventually resigned in September and disappeared into a hospital for a while.

Exactly the same thing is happening now. His policies, such as they are, have failed and his administration is collapsing. He is sick again and seeing doctors on the sly. It's only a matter of time now.

Schopenhauer - Your interesting comment "putting the scandal involving Abe aside.." seems to reflect a misunderstanding that "The Abe Scandal" is not at the core of the problem. It is. It's an open display of  power harassment, power abuse, bullying and a holier than thou attitude all wrapped in a cloth branded cronyism.

And I wonder what broadcasts you listened to, to believe Abe is "not necessarily wrong"??? If you followed NHKs decidedly light weight coverage on last nights 7 & 9 news - then yes, you could swallow the ldp's mouthing. But if you tuned into News Station@10, you would have witnessed a far more broader spectacle and listened to much greater detail with mature analysis.

And many many people with far greater expertise than my poor knowledge allows, agree that the school is not necessary and the process was corrupted. We can read and hear their views everyday.

there's an interesting op-ed penned by woodford, the ex ceo of olypmpus who was fired for being a whistleblower. he compares maekawa to himself, a nail that stood out. i think woodford was more proactive about exposing wrongdoing since maekawa only made noise once he stepped down, but maekawa is still couragouse nonetheless.

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201707030016.html

Someone needs to get ahold of Abe's office and home computers and bank records.

Abe the criminal needs to be put in jail. It is unacceptable that he is passing laws turning the innocent public into criminals (Conspiracy bill) yet roams academia breaking the law at every turn himself.

nakanoguy01 - thanks for posting the interesting link.

Yes, kudos for Maekawa for testifying, especially consider the pressure he's been under, which appears to have included a smear story in the Yomiuri Shinbun.

Now in a normal democratic country based on freedom and liberty the PM would resign after all these scandals.

Putting the scandal involving Abe aside, listening to broadcasting, I felt Abe's stance is not necessarily wrong. Maekawa thinks a veterinary school is not necessary to build newly. Shortage of veterinary doctors will be covered by increasing students of the existing schools. He also said to gather enough teaching staff in making a new school is very difficult. I felt his thinking is backward.

WOW, my oh my! Its attitudes like the above that have allowed the ldp to run rampant with their corruption & waste since the end of WWII, THIS is the real reason Japan is in such poor financial shape & why waste & out & out right pilfering of taxpayers is so rife here, putting corruption & waste & theft ASIDE...... wow!

browny1

I listened to NHK Radio live broadcasting yesterday. I neither have TV set nor newspaper here with me. Only news source for me is radio and internet. I am now at a god-forsaken place in northern Japan. I get up 4 a.m. and go to bed at 6 p.m. I am enjoying a quiet life here. I am commenting here often recently to kill my time. I am enjoying strange opinions by foreigners. More thumbs down I get, the more I am encouraged representing an orthodox Japanese.

Schopenhauer - thanks for the interesting comment on your current life (what at are you doing up in the north?). Always good to read a bit of background on posters.

Recent opinion polls (95% of Japanese dissatisfied with Abe's handling of the Kake allegations as well as Abe's recent poor ratings as well as the Tokyo election) do not indicate that you are representing the views of orthodox Japanese!

I listened to NHK Radio live broadcasting

I stopped reading right there, you do know that NHK is Abe's mouthpiece, don't you?

Reading about Moritomo Gakuen again, Mr. Kagoike, the former frontman of that joint, who was sponsored by the Abes, has tried on several occasions to return the 100 man yen he allegedly received from Abe’s wife. The first time he tried to return the money was at an izakaya (resembling a Munich beer hall I suppose) frequented by Abe’s wife. Mr. Kagoike was shouted out of the door by the brown shirts, where the assembled press asked him to show the envelope containing the 100 man yen. Kagoike partially took out the money and the cameras zoomed in on it, which were clearly 98 (hopefully) pieces of white paper sandwiched between 2 genuine looking 1 man bank notes. People like Kagoike probably aren’t used to returning money, even 2 man yen, so he probably knew he wouldn’t be able to return the money anyway, but it would have been fitting if Abe’s wife would have accepted the “money”.

*Why is his friend voluntarily testifying unsworn?*

if it is fact, true fact which it is, and the dear leader is a criminal, then it should be sworn and abe should get the usual 3 year suspended sentence, 1000000000 million yen golden parachute, and the opportunity to come back when every short term memory Japanese forget about the damage he did.

I dont think anyone wants to see the end of the LDP. The power vacuum that would occur would be chaos for the country.

Yubaru, what power vacuum are you talking about ?

Isn't policy formulated by the bureaucrats.

Do you remember what happened to the DPJ last time when

they tried to wrest control from the bureaucrats.

Educator60 - here's the footage. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14QzZg0efDg

To say it in Japanese "頭絵だよ"

Japanese people, do us a favor and boot this joke of a party that knows nothing

but waste,corruption and cronyism out of power.

To say it in Japanese "頭絵だよ"

Sorry, what?

SchopenhauerToday  08:20 am JST

Putting the scandal involving Abe aside, listening to broadcasting, I felt Abe's stance is not necessarily wrong.

Abe wouldn't care at all about how many veterinary medicine schools there are if his good and dear friend Kotaro Kake didn't want to open one. Anyone else would have been told there are already enough, and that would have been that.

Dishonest Abe skulked back into the country this morning, the day after this extraordinary Diet session, continuing his arrogant refusal to answer questions on the matter.

SchopenhauerToday  10:31 am JST

I am commenting here often recently to kill my time. I am enjoying strange opinions by foreigners. More thumbs down I get, the more I am encouraged representing an orthodox Japanese.

Oh, I see - more than one hundred and twenty million native Japanese people living here, coming from all walks of life, and we're supposed to accept your views as typical?

Really! , anyone who lives in Japan knows that the boss is always right, nothing you can do?, They tell YOU what to say what to do your choice quite or shogani.

 Abe's wife Akie was named honorary principal of the elementary school that Moritomo planned to open at the site.

Abe's wife, who had to be shamed into resigning her position as honorary principal. This would have been avoided if Akie and Shinzo weren't historical revisionists and Akie had done her homework.

Commenters here seem to want to get rid of Abe no matter what. Scandals are not good enough to call anybody a criminal.

It is also a bit strange no one questions Maekawa's hypocritical character and motives. I don't trust anyone in education who takes advantages of students. Anyone who believes Maekawa's excuses should doubt their intelligence.

Scandals are not good enough to call anybody a criminal.

But criminal activity is. That's what is being investigated, is it not?

NaoToday  03:56 pm JST

Commenters here seem to want to get rid of Abe no matter what. 

There's no "seem to" about it. There's always someone saying, "but who would replace him?" but I really don't care. No one could be worse.

Scandals are not good enough to call anybody a criminal.

So we should just forget about this whole Kake Gakuen thing, hm? It has no bearing on how Abe is doing his job as Prime Minister, eh? Well, by that logic we should also forget any scandal that Maekawa got himself involved in when considering his testimony. It has no bearing on what he has to say about Abe and Kake Gakuen.

Scandals are not good enough to call anybody a criminal.

But criminal activity is. That's what is being investigated, is it not?

Suspects are treated as innocent until proven otherwise. Abe is not even investigated by the police department unlike the corrupt educator Kagoike.

Commenters here seem to want to get rid of Abe no matter what. 

There's no "seem to" about it. There's always someone saying, "but who would replace him?" but I really don't care. No one could be worse.

No need to care if you don't live in Japan and are a foreigner I suppose.

Nao - your comment "... Scandals are not good enough to call anybody a criminal..."

Well how about a criminal scandal?

You know - one involving conspicuously corrupt practices favouring fawning parties to the tune of 100s of millions of ￥.

This matter is not just about moral character, it's about intent to act beyond the law.

If it was a special deregulation zone, the PM had every right to pressure corrupt bureaucracy who grant concessions to vested interests. Nothing would have come out as scandals if Kake had not been Abe's friend. Targeting friendships as crimes is senseless and taking in Maekawa's story who is bent on settling vendettas.

It is strikingly clear who is the biggest threat to Japanese people and Japaneses democracy. Abe has to be fair to the nation and to the world. Resign now and give Japan a chance for peace and a chance for justice.

After getting rid of Abe, there wouldn't be any politician who can sustain approval ratings as much as Abe does for several years. There wouldn't be anyone who gets even 30% support ratings. It will be too late when the past DP like dramas are repeated, and economy sunk far worse than it is.

NaoToday  07:18 pm JST

No need to care if you don't live in Japan and are a foreigner I suppose.

Is that what you suppose? I prefer not to say what I suppose about other posters, as in addition to sounding rude, patronising and uninformed, I think it's also highly likely to be incorrect.

NaoToday  08:59 pm JST

If it was a special deregulation zone, the PM had every right to pressure corrupt bureaucracy who grant concessions to vested interests.

Trying to spin this to make it sound like Abe standing up against corruption and vested interests, I see. Good luck with that.

Nothing would have come out as scandals if Kake had not been Abe's friend. 

If Kake had not been Abe's friend he would have got nowhere with his application to open the school.

Targeting friendships as crimes is senseless...

Certainly, if there's nothing more to them than friendship. But don't you think that when a powerful and important person uses the influence that goes with his position to secure nice deals for his friends, it is at least a bit of a problem?

and taking in Maekawa's story who is bent on settling vendettas.

Ah, there we go. Discredit the messenger if you can't dispute the message.

This is Maekawa inquiry and Maekawa is defending himself by defaming Abe as much as possible. He needs to present printed documents.  When Abe is available, doc investigators will compare his printer print out system and Abe.s to ensure Maekawa did not doctored proof.

BTW, This case is Maekawa investigation  now and not Abe case as of now.

Abe may belong to Nippon Kaki but it ha nothing to do with Instigation of Maekawa.

It is really insulting to Jpanese people to say that Abe is the only one who can run the country. There are 90 more million people who are really dedicated and talented. As long as the election is performance based, not votes based, Abe would have no chance to be elected. What is Abe's major? Politics. I can tell you that most talented Japanese wouldn't go to university for a politician carrier. It is simply not their first choice. Peace with all Japanese politicians.

toshikoJuly 11  10:58 pm JST

This is Maekawa inquiry...

No. It's not. Where does it say anywhere he was called in to the Diet to testify about anything he did or not do himself?

He needs to present printed documents. 

Or Abe needs to provide conclusive proof that his testimony is false, otherwise it's just one person's word against another's and I don't think many people are in the mood to believe the Prime Minister, do you?