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2021 March 17 - 23 TOP3 [POLITICS]

Private school in Miyazaki received \24 million in state subsidies after repeated wining/dining of education lawmaker and official

Akahata exclusively reported on March 22 that a private school in Miyazaki Prefecture had received about 24 million yen in government subsidies after the school repeatedly wined and dined a vice education minister and an administrative vice-minister of education.

The records Akahata examined indicate that the president of school corporation "Houei Gakuen" in Miyazaki's Mimata Town had dinner with Kameoka Yoshitami, vice minister for Reconstruction and an LDP member of the Lower House, in expensive restaurants in Miyazaki and Tokyo at least 14 times between 2015 and the end of 2019. The school paid a total of about 950,000 yen for the dinners. When a dinner meeting took place in November 2019, Kameoka was vice education minister.

Fujiwara Makoto, administrative vice minister of education, enjoyed a lavish dinner with Kameoka and the school president in November 2015 when Fujiwara was deputy vice minister of education and again in November 2017. After Fujiwara assumed his post as the administrative vice education minister, he and Kameoka were entertained several times by the school, according to the Akahata-obtained records.

In February 2020, the government decided to award about 24 million yen in subsidies to the school for maintenance of its facilities.

In an Akahata interview, an official of the school said, "There is nothing wrong for the president to meet Dietmembers or bureaucrats if get-togethers with them are advantageous for the future of our school. We are willing to pay expenses for anything ultimately benefiting for our school."

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira at a press conference held in the Diet building on March 22 pointed out, "Houei Gakuen is regarded as an 'interested party' as stipulated under the National Public Service Code." Koike added that being wined and dined by an interested party can be interpreted as "bribery".

Koike pointed out, "The school puts entertainment costs down to expenses out of school's expectation that wining and dining will bring benefits in return. The school itself admitted to this in an Akahata interview." He said, "It is necessary to call parties concerned, including school representatives, to the Diet in order to reveal the whole truth behind the wining and dining get-togethers."