Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe knew of preliminary plans to build a veterinary school on city-owned land and may have met with Kotaro Kake, a longtime friend, according to documents submitted to Japanese parliament Monday. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI |
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May 22 (UPI) -- Fresh evidence of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's involvement in a controversial school deal has emerged -- but Abe denies meeting with his friend Kotaro Kake for the purpose of discussing the Kake Educational Institution's new veterinary school.
According to 27 pages of documents from the Ehime prefectural government, Abe met with Kake on Feb. 25, 2015, although the prime minister told the Diet the institution did not reach out to him, the Asahi Shimbun reported Tuesday.
The meeting in 2015 lasted 15 minutes, and Abe was told Kake was planning a veterinary school "of an international standard," documents show.
"To be certain, I had records at the prime minister's office checked yesterday and could not confirm such a meeting," Abe said Tuesday.
Abe also said no records were found of meetings with prefectural government officials, according to South Korean newspaper Seoul Shinmun.
According to the memos obtained by the Asahi, Abe's executive secretary Tadao Yanase met with Kake officials following the February meeting, to inform them they faced strong opposition from the veterinary medicine community.
Yanase met again with Kake officials on April 2, 2015, when he reportedly said the Kake project is a "matter related to the prime minister."
Yanase has acknowledged meeting with Kake officials but has said he did not meet with regional officials from Ehime and Imabari.
The school scandal is centered on the acquisition of city-owned property at zero cost in Imabari, in western Japan.
Protesters have called for Abe to step down, but the prime minister has since recovered his approval rating, which now stands at 42 percent, according to The Yomiuri Shimbun.
Impeachment is unlikely for Abe, because the school scandal investigation is moving at a slow pace in Osaka, and Japan's political opposition has not shown sufficiently strong support for his resignation.
