TOKYO, March 23 (Xinhua) -- The embattled head of a nationalist school operator in Osaka Prefecture at the center of a controversial cut-price land deal will be summoned Thursday to both chambers of parliament to give sworn testimony.
The land deal with the government has implicated senior politicians including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Moritomo Gakuen President Yasunori Kagoike will give sworn testimony before the House of Councillors Budget Committee in the morning before moving to the House of Representatives panel in the afternoon, government sources close to the matter said early Thursday morning
Each session will last approximately 2 hours each, and in the upper chamber of Japan's bicameral system of parliament, Kagoike will give testimony prior to answering questions.
There has been an escalating furor surrounding Moritomo Gakuen for it's and the government's possible involvement in a cut-price land deal for the operator to purchase a plot of land from the government at a massively discounted price with the land to be used to build a new elementary school.
Funds for the school were allegedly raised using Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's name and his wife, Akie, was supposed to serve as honorary principal of the would-be school, but has since stepped down as the scandal widened and video of the school's nationalist agenda began to be beamed across social media platforms and regular broadcasting sites.
Meanwhile, a controversial kindergarten also run by Moritomo Gakuen found itself in the headlines recently for its imperialistic-style of edification, with the school being slammed for disseminating hate speech about Korean and Chinese residents of Japan, as well as for instances, currently under investigation, regarding cases of child abuse at the contentious school.
But of the issues of this multifaceted case that will be stringently examined in parliament starting Thursday will be claims made by Kagoike that Abe made a sizable donation through his wife Akie Abe, who has previously been linked with the schools and is known to have made several speeches at Moritomo Gakuen's schools.
Abe's office was swift to denounce the charges and checked third party office records to ensure that Akie herself had not made the donation on her husband's behalf.
In the case in which Kagoike's testimony runs contrary to Akie's, she may be called to give her own count of events Thursday in a related press conference or in a written account.
Kagoike is claiming that 1 million yen (8,991 U.S. dollars) was handed to him by Akie on behalf of the prime minister following one of the speeches Akie made at Moritomo Gakuen's nationalist kindergarten.
As well as the alleged donation, Kagoike will also likely be pressed over why exactly local authorities gave him an easier-than-usual time in signing off on the school to be opened, and, of equal if not more pertinence will be a grilling him over multiple and possibly erroneous construction cost estimates filed to the prefecture to boost the financial stability of the operator.
As regarding the sudden U-turn and Kagoike quickly removing his application from Osaka prefectural officials, lawmakers will expect him to elucidate on the details of this and explain whether or not there were any politicians involved at this point advising on, or otherwise manipulating or pressurizing the situation.
In terms of other high ranking politicians with known links to Kagoike are Defense Minister Minister Tomomi Inada who has come under fire in parliament with calls for her to resign for lying about her ties to the operator.
She denied having represented Moritomo Gakuen or giving it legal advise in her days as a lawyer before she became a politician.
She subsequently retracted her denial in parliament and while back-peddling apologized and said she had in fact given the operator legal counsel and represented it in a trial.
She told parliament by way of an excuse that her memory had failed her, an excuse which was deemed wholly unacceptable by the opposition bloc which suggested she was unfit to carry out her ministerial duties as the nation's defense minister and should step down.
Inada's husband and father have also been linked to Kagoike.
Kagoike's testimony on Thursday will mark the first time in five years that a sworn witness has been summoned to give testimony in parliament.
