This article revisits a chapter first published on April 14, 2018, examining the Ehime Prefecture “Kake documents” and the media narrative surrounding the phrase “Prime Minister’s matter” in the Kake Gakuen controversy.
Drawing on the testimony of former Ehime Governor Moriyuki Kato, it argues that major media outlets such as the Asahi Shimbun engaged in malicious reporting, that claims of direct prime ministerial involvement were unnatural, and that the issue was exploited politically to obstruct constitutional revision.

2019-03-25
I will discuss the malice of the Asahi Shimbun later, but it is no exaggeration to say that their methods are exactly the same as the “bottomless evil” and the “plausible lies” of the Korean Peninsula and China.

If I were on the Kantei side, I would do it.
I would feel sorry for them after being kicked away so many times by the Cabinet Office, and I would give them advice.
I am reposting here a chapter that I first published on 2018-04-14 under that title.
The following is from an article published on page 5 of today’s Sankei Shimbun.
I will discuss the malice of the Asahi Shimbun later, but it is no exaggeration to say that their methods are exactly the same as the “bottomless evil” and the “plausible lies” of the Korean Peninsula and China.
Ehime Prefecture “Kake Document,” U.S.-Japan Summit, North Korea Issue… A Mountain of Agenda Items. Former Ehime Governor Moriyuki Kato.
Moriyuki Kato, the former governor of Ehime Prefecture who promoted the invitation of a veterinary school by the educational corporation Kake Gakuen in Okayama City, said on the 13th in an interview with the Sankei Shimbun that the document containing phrases such as “Prime Minister’s matter” was “not something connected to the prime minister.”
He also said that the word “anken” itself is “not normally used.”
“The phrase ‘Prime Minister’s matter’ has taken on a life of its own.”
As for the phrase “Prime Minister’s matter” written in the memo prepared by an Ehime Prefectural employee that has become the issue this time, since Motohisa Yanase, former executive secretary to the prime minister, whom the prefectural employee claims to have met, has commented that he “would never use such a phrase,” I do not think he used it.
However, since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the chair of the National Strategic Special Zones Advisory Council, which certifies national strategic special zones, perhaps some similar wording may have been used.
Even if that were the case, would it not simply mean that the prime minister makes the final decision?
It is not a matter that directly ties to the prime minister, but the phrase “Prime Minister’s matter” has gone off on its own.
Bureaucrats do not ordinarily use the phrase “Prime Minister’s matter.”
They often use the word “matter” in relation to the prime minister or a minister.
In this case, it would mean “matter” in the sense that the prime minister makes the final judgment.
Perhaps “Prime Minister matter” was written down in the memo as “Prime Minister’s matter.”
Now that this memo has come to light, I wonder whether the national government will cease to trust local governments.
If Ehime Prefecture comes to be seen as putting everything into memos and releasing them outside, the national government’s response will become less accommodating.
Originally, it was material prepared to explain matters to the governor and vice governor, but if exchanged memos are allowed to leak out, trust will be lost.
Ehime Prefectural employees are all earnest.
They work very hard.
In order to attract a veterinary school, they probably appealed in many different ways.
However, if one were going to the Kantei to settle matters, it would have to be at least a department director or the vice governor who went.
It is possible that the national side may at least have given them some advice.
To use a mountain-climbing analogy, the trailhead called structural reform special zones is steep, but there is another trailhead called national strategic special zones.
Something like, “This way is easier to climb.”
I wonder whether it is right to call that favoritism.
If I were on the Kantei side, I would do it.
I would feel sorry for them after being kicked away so many times by the Cabinet Office, and I would give them advice.
Because the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology were rejecting Ehime Prefecture’s application in line with the wishes of the Japan Veterinary Medical Association.
In that case, if you know the trailhead and still do not tell them, that would be the unkind thing to do.
At the meetings of the Education Rebuilding Implementation Council in May and October of Heisei 25, I asked the prime minister for the establishment of a veterinary school in Shikoku.
Without mentioning the proper noun Kake Gakuen, I asked whether, since it could not be done because of entrenched regulations, somehow it could be included in the council’s recommendations, but the prime minister listened with an uninterested expression.
It may have entered his mind that Ehime Prefecture was working hard to establish a veterinary school, but if the prime minister had really been involved, I think such a lack of reaction would have been an extraordinary poker face.
After that, the application was rejected by the Cabinet Office.
If the prime minister had had even the slightest interest, I do not think he would have reacted that way.
The opposition parties are probably thinking of attacking with a three-piece set consisting of the Defense Ministry daily report issue, the alteration of the Finance Ministry’s approval documents in the Moritomo Gakuen issue, and this memo issue.
It is an attack aimed at preventing constitutional revision.
However, the memo was made by an employee as a kind of memorandum and is not an official document.
At a time when the world is moving at a dizzying pace, with the U.S.-Japan summit approaching and the North Korea issue also before us, all this talk about a memo turning up and whether it is correct or not….
The Budget Committee is unbearable to watch.