A political insider reflects on the initial response to the Kake Gakuen controversy and the misunderstanding surrounding the so-called “Prime Minister’s intention” document.
An inside account of administrative procedures and media narratives

Some involved even joked and laughed, saying, “So Hagiuda really was the highest level of the Prime Minister’s Office after all.”
2018-01-30.
The following continues from the previous section.
The fact that Kotaro Kake, chairman of Kake Gakuen, who planned to establish a new veterinary school in Imabari City, happened to be personally close to Prime Minister Abe became the sole point of contention, and I never imagined that it would lead to more than half a year of uproar in the Diet.
Looking back, it is also true that the government side, including myself, made mistakes in our initial response.
At the time, I was Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, and when the Kake issue first began to attract attention, the opposition parties were making arguments that were so far-fetched and off the mark that we responded dismissively, as if to say, “What on earth are they talking about?”
However, in hindsight, rather than responding only to the opposition lawmakers in front of us, we should have explained more sincerely to the public beyond them that this was not a scandal.
Conversely, the Kake Gakuen issue was structured in such a way that there was no system allowing us to intervene in the application and approval process to push anything through intentionally.
In other words, it was the shared understanding among those involved—including private experts—that there was no room for Prime Minister Abe to use personal connections to favor an acquaintance or to exercise discretion for someone’s benefit.
Therefore, we did not regard as problematic the front-page “Prime Minister’s intention” document dated May 17, 2017, which the Asahi Shimbun reported as if it were “decisive evidence.”
By April, it had already been reported that I was an honorary visiting professor at Chiba Institute of Science, affiliated with Kake Gakuen, so when the document appeared, those involved even joked and laughed, saying, “So Hagiuda really was the highest level of the Prime Minister’s Office after all.”
To be continued.