Responding in writing to the Sankei Shimbun, Ishiba Shigeru denied any involvement or awareness regarding the Niigata veterinary school application, raising questions about political lobbying and responsibility.

In a written response to the Sankei Shimbun, former minister Ishiba Shigeru categorically denied knowledge of Niigata City’s veterinary school application and lobbying by the Japan Veterinary Political Federation. This section traces the timeline, political pressure, and the rigidity surrounding veterinary education policy in Japan.

2017-07-18

In contrast, Shigeru Ishiba responded in writing to an inquiry from the Sankei Shimbun, stating that he had “absolutely no knowledge” of Niigata City’s application to establish a new veterinary school.

About thirty-five years ago, before the Asahi Shimbun fabricated stories about wartime “comfort women” and the forced mobilization of Koreans—running sixteen major features over thirty-two years and spreading false reports domestically and internationally—there may well have been reporters at the Sankei who wrote articles based on prejudice without conducting proper interviews.
However, today’s Sankei Shimbun is entirely different from the Sankei of thirty-five years ago.
It is now the only newspaper in Japan that anyone can be confident conducts thorough fact-checking and reports accordingly.

What follows continues from the previous chapter.
(All emphasis in the text, except for headings, is mine.)

Endless Political Maneuvering

In fact, Naoto Kitamura, chairman of the Japan Veterinary Political Federation, had a prior success to draw upon.
In July 2014, when Niigata City applied to establish a new veterinary school under the National Strategic Special Zone framework, Kitamura persuaded Ishiba by arguing, “It takes ten years for a veterinary school to generate economic benefits. A special zone is meaningless unless it produces results within two or three years.”
Ishiba, who became Minister for Regional Revitalization in September of that year, concurred, saying, “That doesn’t really suit a special zone,” and Niigata City’s application was soon rejected.

The case of Imabari City in Ehime Prefecture also appeared to be left in limbo due to the imposition of four conditions.
Momentum resumed only after the August 2016 cabinet reshuffle, when the Minister for Regional Revitalization changed from Ishiba to Kozo Yamamoto.

No new veterinary school had been established for half a century since Kitasato University did so in 1966.
Enrollment quotas had likewise remained fixed at 930 students since 1979.
Behind this abnormal rigidity lay relentless political lobbying by the veterinary association.
The so-called “Ishiba Four Conditions” were one such “achievement.”

Ishiba’s father, Jiro Ishiba, was a former Home Ministry bureaucrat and governor of Tottori Prefecture, known for his efforts to establish a veterinary department at Tottori University.
If his son moved to block the creation of new veterinary schools, it could only be described as ironic.

Ishiba repeatedly stated regarding the Kake Educational Institution’s veterinary school plan, “If all four conditions are met, it should proceed; if they are not, it must not. It is a very simple matter.”
However, once these came to be called the “Ishiba Four Conditions,” he began shifting responsibility, saying, “I did not create them on my own; they were decided by the cabinet.”

Meanwhile, in his written response to the Sankei Shimbun, Ishiba flatly denied everything: that he knew anything about Niigata City’s veterinary school application, that there had been any request from the veterinary association to incorporate the four conditions, and that he had made the remarks attributed to him on September 9, 2015.

(Honorifics omitted. Titles are those held at the time.)