Japan Press Weekly

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2021 March 24 - 30 [POLITICS]

Miyazaki-based private school also wines and dines ex-state minister for internal affairs

Akahata on March 24 published a follow-up report on the wining/dining scandal involving the “Houei Gakuen” school corporation in Miyazaki Prefecture, revealing that the school corporation also offered lavish dinners to former State Minister for Internal Affairs Matsushita Shinpei who is a Liberal Democratic Party Upper House member elected from Miyazaki.

The Houei school corporation is covered by the state program subsidizing private education.

The records Akahata examined indicate that the Houei corporation paid for dinners with Matsushita at expensive restaurants in Tokyo, including high-end sushi restaurants, at least six times between 2016 and 2019. The school paid about 400,000 yen in total for the dinners. The records also suggest that when Matsushita served as state minister for Internal Affairs, the school footed the bills for lavish dinners.

In addition, the 2016 political funds report of Matsushita’s LDP branch shows that the branch received one million yen in donations from Houei Gakuen president Shimizu Yutaka.

Among the records, there is a record indicating that accompanied by Matsushita, Shimizu met with bureaucrats of the Finance and Justice ministries at the end of 2019. It is necessary to investigate whether the Houei corporation received special favors or not.

Past related article:
> Private school in Miyazaki received \24 million in state subsidies after repeated wining/dining of education lawmaker and official [March 22 & 23, 2021]