On Wednesday, February 19, 2020, the Osaka District Court sent Yasunori Kagoike, the former head of the school operator Moritomo Gakuen, to prison for five years. His wife, Junko, received three years, suspended for five. Both had been convicted of cheating public authorities out of subsidies.
How the fraud worked
The central government case concerned an elementary school the couple planned to build on land bought from the state in Osaka. The court found that between March 2016 and February 2017 they inflated the construction costs reported to a building company and so collected 56.4 million yen they were not entitled to. The Kagoikes were convicted on this count together.
A second case involved local money. Between fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2016 the pair were charged with taking 120 million yen in subsidies from Osaka Prefecture and Osaka city by claiming that their preschool employed more teachers than it did. Yasunori was found guilty of illegally receiving local government subsidies. Junko was cleared on the 120 million yen charge.
The Abe connection
The case drew far more attention than an ordinary fraud trial would, because Moritomo Gakuen sat at the centre of a political scandal. The couple were arrested in July 2017, after it emerged that the operator had bought state land in Osaka a year earlier for a fraction of its actual value. Akahata, the Japanese Communist Party daily, wrote that the Finance Ministry sold the land 800 million yen below its assessed value, which raised the suspicion that Kagoike had used his ties with Akie Abe, the prime minister’s wife, to win the discount. She had been named honorary principal of the school, a post she gave up before the scandal grew.
Kagoike said he had received 1 million yen from Akie in 2015, and that she told him it came from the prime minister. Shinzo Abe denied giving him any money. In February 2017 Abe told the Diet that he would resign as prime minister and as a member of the Diet if he or his wife were found to have been involved in the land deal.
The Finance Ministry later admitted it had knowingly altered documents tied to the sale and punished 20 officials. Even so, no government official had been indicted. Akahata argued in an editorial that the trial had not examined the responsibility of Abe and his wife, and that this still needed to be done.
Sources
- Former head of Japanese nationalist school operator, wife found guilty over fraud (Xinhua)
- Abe still held responsible to explain fully about 'Moritomo' scandal (Japan Press Weekly, Akahata editorial excerpts)
Sources
- Former head of Japanese nationalist school operator, wife …
- Moritomo couple lose final appeal, head to prison on fraud …
